Harry Potter and the New Order
by ammonite99
Summary: The Dark Lord has won, society has changed and Harry is off to Hogwarts for his first year but Harry is no ordinary boy...
1. The Sorting

**Harry Potter and the New Order**

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honourable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.  
Maya Angelou 

Chapter One

Harry stood at the back of the crowd of chattering children. No one came near him as they gazed in amazement at the charmed ceiling of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. To tell the truth Harry was in awe at the ceiling especially as he didn't think he would ever have got to this stage and been allowed in.

The occupants of the hall quieted as a man stood at the top of the hall commanding silence just by his presence. Harry knew this man, oh yes he knew this man; Professor Snape, Headmaster of Hogwarts, who had incidentally been in charge of monitoring Harry throughout his life. He rubbed the silver bracelet on his wrist as he mentally scowled. Snape had been responsible for him wearing it. It bound him to Hogwarts for the next seven years and also allowed his loyalty to the cause to be established without the painful legilimens that he had been accustomed to before.

He turned his attention back to the hall's occupants noticing they had started the Sorting and watched as Granger, Hermione stumbled forward towards the Sorting Hat. Her grey uniform a marked her as a muggle born, when she was sorted as a Gryffindor, he saw her directed to the Gryffindor muggleborn seating area, where surrounded by others dressed as she was, she was welcomed. The sorting progressed with the number of students still standing dropping. Harry watched as Malfoy, Draco was sorted to Slytherin, his black uniform fitting in with the sea of black at the Slytherin table. No muggleborn area was needed here as none were ever sorted into his house although a small group at the end of the table wore the black and grey of half bloods. This was what he was dressed in the black with the wide grey stripe on the sleeve; collar and hem marking him as half blood in this world were blood was important. However his uniform was different. It held the white snake motif front and back that he had worn on all his clothing for as long as he could remember. He loathed it, detesting what it stood for. That he was the child of the great traitors and as such was monitored constantly and mocked for his heritage.

Finally only he was left standing. He guessed he should have been earlier in the order if he was allowed his surname but as it was 'Harry' was all he was allowed as a name and this was what was called. Any mention of his surname or parents names was banned after his parents defeat and he had grown up answering to Harry only or worse.

He walked forward feeling all eyes on him as whispers broke out around the hall, people noticing the marking on his robes and realising just who he was. Then he reached the stool and all whispers were suddenly blocked out by the hat landing over his ears and a voice talking into his head. 'Ahh, difficult, very difficult. You have cunning and desire to better yourself, which is not surprising really. Despite that Slytherin would not do, however much you would suit Slytherin, Slytherin would not suit you. Hmm, courage, yes and a good mind. I know just where to put you, it better be GRYFFINDOR. Harry got off the stool and walked towards the Gryffindor table, hearing silence around instead of the applause that all other sorted students received. He knew which ever house he was sorted in would find it hard to accept him but the silence was icy and lasted until he sat down. He had been informed in his meeting earlier with Snape that his seating position was at the foot of whichever table he was sorted into, signifying his position in this new ordered world where blood and loyalty was all that mattered.

When Harry had sat down, Professor Snape started speaking again giving out the start of term announcements regarding clubs and rule changes but Harry tuned them out, he had been given his own set of rules earlier. Most consisted of restrictions, which didn't surprise him after all he was still amazed he had even been allowed to come to learn magic, he had thought they would keep him as far away as possible but he guessed that his presence here was an attempt by the Dark Lord to look benevolent, which after all was why Harry was still alive.

Finally Snape finished speaking and declared the feast started. Food was not denied to him unless he was being punished but all he ever received was plain food. On the surrounding tables he could see Purebloods tucking into exotic and fancy dishes whilst the groups of muggleborns had slightly less fancy food appearing in front of them. Blood status was denoted in all activities these days and had been ever since the deaths of his parents and Dumbledore.

Where Harry sat isolated he could see the new students introducing themselves and everyone excitedly chattering as they ate. The new students at the Gryffindor table at least those in the muggleborn section were comparing wands. Harry wondered who had his wand at the moment. After he had been taken to choose it, it had been taken off him and he had been informed he would receive it back for classes. He shrugged there was not much he could do about it now, so he concentrated on eating and memorising faces, so he would have a fair guess at who in each house and year he should avoid.

One of the new Gryffindor muggleborn students tried to speak to him, where he sat isolated but was shushed by an older student before he could reply. He was clearly the subject under discussion as looks were shot at him but no one after that approached him although he caught the girl who had originally tried to speak to him shooting him sympathetic looks occasionally. He remembered her name suddenly, it was Hermione and he wondered whether she would try to speak to him again at some point. He had been resigned to seven years of loneliness after all he had spent the last few years alone apart from a range of adults supposedly there to look after him but in reality guarding him. Snape had told him he wasn't to try to influence people by talking to them unnecessarily and he feared the punishment it would bring if this girl did try to make friends with him.

Finally the feast finished and as they were dismissed, Harry followed the new Gryffindors out of the Hall to see where he was to live for the next seven years. The common room was not obviously divided but it was clear that the Purebloods got the seats by the fire leaving the other half of the room for the others. The prefects including a bossy looking boy who introduced himself as Percy Weasley gathered all the new first years in the centre of the room to lay down the Gryffindor rules and introduce them to where they would be living for the next seven years.

'Welcome to Gryffindor, the house of the brave. In here will be your family for the next seven years, you will eat, sleep and learn together. Whilst Slytherin may currently be the most powerful house, it is to be hoped that Gryffindor will play their part in making the school a good learning environment and a stepping stone to the world beyond these walls. Now if the girls would follow the female prefects up the stairs to your left, I will show the boys to your dormitory.' Said Percy pompously. Harry noticed that one of the new students also had similar red hair as did a couple of boys seated near the fire, who were scribbling on parchment and looking slightly shifty. As Harry went to follow the boys, he was held back roughly.

'Not you,' One boy sneered at him. 'Traitors aren't allowed in the dormitories. This is your room' and Harry felt himself shoved towards a small door under the boys stairs 'after all we can't have you out of reach of running errands can we? You will stay in there at all times unless you are required to run errands. We don't want to see a traitor littering our common room.' There were murmurs of agreement from around the room and Harry found himself inside the room as the door was banged too.

He picked himself off the floor groaning, he had been hoping that the students hadn't been told about his status of errand boy but that didn't seem like it was true. The prefects must have been told on the train. Snape had informed him earlier that one of the conditions of him being allowed at Hogwarts was if he made himself useful outside of class. He guessed he wouldn't be getting much time to himself and wondered when he would fit in his own work. He had no recourse either, protesting would bring punishment and he had had enough of that over the years to know it was unlikely to be pleasant, whether physical correction or more restrictions or tasks. Snape was highly inventive with punishments when it was required and now he was around him for longer he expected they could get worse.

Looking around the room he saw a small pallet on the floor next to a stack of clothes and books. Other than that the room was plain, resembling a cupboard more than anything with bare stone walls. The only thing likely to be cheerful was the small window close to the floor but at the moment only darkness could be seen. Looking through the books he found they were old battered copies of the first year textbook and he settled down to read one before falling asleep.

Two floors below, Snape entered his office to find someone seated in his chair. He dropped to his knee bowing his head as he recognised the figure of the Dark Lord.

'My Lord, the sorting is complete. The Slytherins are all children of your death eaters, with no Muggleborns or half bloods sorted into the house.'

'Thanks you, Severus, you may rise and take a seat. What of Harry? I presume you told him of his restrictions when he arrived this afternoon?'

Snape rose and taking a seat replied 'Harry is a Gryffindor, just like his useless parents. He knows his boundaries and should remain isolated amongst the students. I have placed the bracelet on him and am now able to monitor his location and loyalties. My Lord, what am I to do about his wand?'

'Hmm, for the moment, just keep giving it to him for wand classes. There may come a time when we can identify one his fellow students to entrust the wand to between classes but at the moment we shall keep all temptation away from him. We will see if the holding of the brother wand to mine means anything. Now I must go. Inform me if Harry steps out of line at all and if you need anything.'

With this he apparated, the only person allowed to apparate in Hogwarts after he had usurped the headmasters right after the death of Dumbledore and the fall of the ministry. Snape still held the wards but the castle recognised Voldemort as its master now and major alterations to the structure could only be carried out by him, something Snape was slightly miffed about but had no desire to tell Voldemort.

Snape sat down tiredly at this desk pushing the paperwork out of the way. The last few years had been busy after the Dark Lords victory seven years ago and it was only now settling down. Although this year with the appearance of Harry at Hogwarts already looked unlikely to be the quiet year he had been hoping for.

He had been monitoring Harry for the Dark Lord for a few years now due to his legilimency skills since the Dark Lord did not yet want to meet with the boy he had for some reason saved. He had gone to kill the Potters and had managed this as well as defeating Dumbledore who turned up just as the Dark Lord was preparing to kill the four year old boy, thus starting the process that had made him ruler of Britain. Something had occurred during the battle with Dumbledore that had made him spare Harry instead installing him in a guarded cottage and monitoring his thoughts, behaviour and a peculiar scar on the boy's forehead in the shape of a lightening bolt. It had been a surprise when the Dark Lord had allowed Harry to come to Hogwarts but now it was his responsibility to monitor the boy's behaviour as well as thoughts ensuring he remained isolated from the other students as the Dark Lord wished. Why precisely the Dark Lord required this, he wasn't sure but he knew better than to question the reasoning instead focusing on scarring Harry into submission with threats and restrictions. It was an easy task now after Harry had been kept isolated for seven years, being monitored and punished for any physical or mental infraction of the rules although the boy's spirit was still intact and his rebellion always hovered close to the surface.

He had seen the muggleborn student reach out to him and then be drawn back into the fold with an explanation from an older student. The looks afterwards worried him but as yet there was nothing he could do and she would learn their relative places in the world, learn what the white snake mark that Harry wore meant and how it was better as a muggleborn not to be singled out. If not she would find herself shunned in this new world she had entered, considered for only the worst of positions no matter what her results although her blood meant she was only allowed certain jobs any way. Now she was in the wizarding world to stay. Her parents would have been obliviated when leaving the station and she would live in one of the muggleborn housing blocks for the rest of her life after qualifying from Hogwarts.

With a check of the device monitoring Harry's location, he saw he was in bed asleep and getting up he headed that way himself shelving all issues regarding Harry and the rest of the school until tomorrow.


	2. Lessons Begin

I don't have the rights to any of J.K. Rowling's characters or places from the Harry Potter books, although like most other people I wish I did!

Chapter two

The next day Harry got up woken by the sun streaming through the window and his excitement at finally starting to learn magic. As he got dressed, he worried nervously about how the students and teachers would treat him. He knew that some of the teachers had probably taught his parents having taught here for years but others had been placed in vacant positions after the fall of Dumbledore and definitely followed the death eater way of thinking. He had been told by Snape that he was to wait to be seated in each class as each teacher had a different order they used to seat students.

Thinking about this he made his way down to breakfast eventually finding the hall, where taking his isolated seat again he watched the timetables being handed round. Taking his timetable from his Head of House, Professor McGonagall, who Harry had been told was under oaths not to talk to him about anything other than class work after her previous support of Dumbledore and close relationship to his parents. He avoided her sad gaze as he took the timetable scanning it to see what classes he had today.

He found his way to his first class which was charms and stood waiting for the other students and teacher to arrive. The teacher for this class was another relic of the past era and again Harry assumed he was under oath not to talk to him about anything other than charms.

Suddenly jolted from his thoughts of the upcoming class as he was shoved, he looked up to find that he was sharing the class with the Slytherins. Mentally groaning he lowered his gaze trying not to attract attention but it was too late. Draco Malfoy strutted forward, already the clear leader of the group probably due to his father's position in the new regime and sneered at him.

'Traitor, what is scum like you doing here consorting with the best of society like us?'

Harry remained silent although his tongue itched to respond. Currently his fear of what may happen if he retaliated was too great and he knew if he did retaliate Draco would go crying to his godfather.

He had come across Draco several times over the years in the company of his father and godfather. These times had mainly been at the Victory celebration parades that were held annually at Halloween and where Harry had often been paraded to show off how benevolent the Dark Lord was. Draco had been amongst his main tormentors at these events, where Harry mourning for the loss of his parents had been forced to walk through Diagon Alley. These walks were how many of the students had seen him and how they knew the meaning of the white snake on his clothing.

Before the situation could get worse, Flitwick called them in and Harry followed all the students in to be seated in the corner at the back. Here he could follow the lesson quietly and he started to relax although Hermione seated next to him was scribbling furiously. The next lessons followed the same pattern with Harry being ignored in all of them until it came to one of the ones he had been dreading; potions.

Here Snape had informed him yesterday, he wasn't to be allowed to waste valuable ingredients and was instead at the beck and call of the teacher and from him available for the class to order around.

Entering the class, he stood unsurely at the back until all the other students had been seated leaving no space for him. Only then did Professor Begg look up and see him, 'you boy, stand in the corner in this class until I call for you.'

Calling the register he sneered as he reached Harry's name on the register but didn't say anything choosing to start lecturing on the basics of potion making.

Harry stood in the corner of the room allowing the initial lecture to wash over him absorbed in the words and only moved when the professor beckoned him forwards directing him towards the table where Malfoy sat with directions to cut up the ingredients for him. From him and ignoring the jeers and taunts he moved steadily around the class helping all those in the dark robes. Every time he finished one task, he was pulled or called over to another. By the end of the lesson which was a double period, he was tired and sore but it wasn't over yet. As everyone handed in their vials of potions of varying colours and consistencies and packed up to leave, he retreated back to the corner to pick up his books only to find himself called back.

'Boy, where are you going? You still have to tidy up.' He was shoved towards the sink where a pile of cauldrons awaited him. He almost told Professor Begg where he could shove his cauldrons but decided that for the first day at least staying out of trouble was probably best. With a small sob of tiredness and frustration, he got to work scrubbing the cauldrons in miserable silence until finally he was done. After being released he tore up to the common room to leave his bags before dinner.

That night at dinner his hands were almost too sore to handle the cutlery covered in a tracery of small cuts from the jolts that had applied while he was cutting up ingredients. He couldn't wait to retreat to his own small space and finishing dinner he found his way back up to the common room. But here he found he was mistaken and the older students instead used him as a dummy for some of the spells and hexes they were practicing until late, when finally aching and sore all over he crept into his space and looked at his own work.

This pattern continued for the next few weeks and Harry grew increasingly tired and sore. They had yet to get onto wanded magic in their classes but even so the quality of Harry's written work suffered as he was forced to do it when tired and aching late at night. The whispers of 'traitor' and other insults that had followed him round had finally died off although many students still avoided him.

Three weeks into term Harry found his usual Saturday pattern of running errands and being used as a practise dummy interrupted with a summons to Snape's office. Ransacking his memory for anything he had done to deserve this he presented himself at the right time nervously.

When called to come in, he went in and took a seat at the hard wooden chair directly in front of Snape's desk.

'Ahh Harry, I wonder if you could tell me why we should allow you to continue here with the poor marks you have received so far?'

Harry knew better than to try to answer with excuses. They had never been allowed before and instead tended to be punished. He answered with 'I don't know, sir' keeping his eyes lowered. He had guessed the meeting might be about this but as thoughts of the nights spent being cursed and then trying to do his homework in bed without his wand flashed through his head, he resigned himself to whatever punishment Snape handed out and hoped it wouldn't be too bad.

Snape's voice cracked over his head 'we feed, house and cloth you and now we educate you, are you not grateful enough to offer some small assistance to others? Your results are a disgrace. Crucio' and with that Harry found himself in agony as his nerve endings burst into flame. Trying not to scream he fell off the chair. The curse ended after a couple of seconds leaving Harry panting on the floor. Regaining some movement he scrambled up and back to the seat before he get hurt again. He waited tensely for what else was to come.

Then he found himself bound to the chair unable to move. Even though he had been subjected to legilimency before, he still found Snape's penetration of his mind painful as his recent memories, thoughts and emotions flashed through his brain. Suddenly he found himself released with a splitting migraine although still unable to move.

Snape looked coldly at him 'For punishment, you will miss the flying lessons your year will start next week. You will remain in your room while they are going on. This will be monitored. I expect your grades to improve or else there will be further punishment. Do you understand me?'

Harry found he could move and nodded 'Yes, sir'

'Good, then you may go. I do not wish to hear about you for a while.' With this Snape turned back to the paperwork on his desk leaving Harry to slowly leave the room, his limbs still trembling from the curse and his head pounding.

Once back in the safety of his room he lay on the pallet shaking. He had been under the cruciatus a couple of times and knew better than to seek out the Mediwitch for treatment for that or his migraine. He slowly drifted off to sleep, thinking of the flying lessons that he was now missing. He had been looking forward to as he could just remember owning kids brooms when his parents were alive and had been looking forward to the freedom of flight.

Back in Snape's office as Harry left, Voldemort appeared out of the shadows in the corner.

'Well done, Severus, you have the boy off balance with a perfect application of the carrot and stick. I wonder how long it will take him to realise we have given him more time to do his own work. However, if the boys appearance or work gets worse you may want to consider changing the boys living accommodation, perhaps changing it to near a professors rooms, so that he can help them rather than worthless students.'

'Thanks you, My Lord' replied Snape, 'I could see in his mind the boy is exhausted and in pain for much of the time. He tries to do the work late at night but struggles. The Gryffindor students use him for spell practice most evenings. We shall see when the majority of the wanded work starts how well he can keep up with no practice.'

'Now, Severus, I believe the boy may surprise you yet. Now to our plans for Halloween, I have yet to decide whether the boy shall go to Diagon Alley. I feel the point has been made by now after all these years. Perhaps you could arrange something for the school?'

'I shall think on it, My Lord, are there any restriction on the use of the boy?'

'He should not be harmed permanently and I feel it would look better in the papers if he could be seen to be perfectly healthy, so maybe you can assign him a detention in the week preceding in order to prevent the exuberance of his Gryffindor housemates. Now to other business, have you…'


	3. Neville Longbottom

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. At the moment there is no plans to make this story Slash. Harry is only an eleven year old boy with other issues to deal with before he gets on to complicating his life further.

As usual, the places and characters are J.K Rowlings.

Chapter three

Harry spent the next few days ignoring his year mates chatter about flying lessons. The purebloods spent the time boasting about their flying prowess and tormenting the muggleborn, who had yet to try to try flying. Several times in the Great Hall students were presented with brooms and told to start sweeping. The pureblood students had all been allowed to bring a broom with them, whilst the muggleborn were only allowed the old school brooms and even these were restricted in speed by law. In Gryffindor, Hermione could be heard reciting all she had learnt from 'Quidditch through the Ages', whilst Ron Weasley spent the time boasting about almost hitting a hang – glider, while the other purebloods chimed in with their flying stories. Geraldus Mallory claimed he had been flying since he was one and had several times been to training sessions with Puddlemere United.

The evening before the flying lessons, Harry was in the common room being used as a target for spell practice. This didn't involve him having to do anything so he just sat on the floor in the middle of the room, changing colours occasionally as well as growing bushy eyebrows and a moustache. Sitting here however, allowed him to hear the chatter across the room. He could hear the Weasley Twins plotting a new prank and was glad for a change that his meals were different based on what they were plotting. He didn't fancy being turned green and silver. At least no more than he already was, he amended, looking down at his parti-coloured body.

He could hear the pureblood first years across the room surrounding one of the muggleborn students.

'Miss Know-it-all, thinks she knows all about flying, does she? Thinks she can learn it all out of a book. Well you are in our world now and blood counts for a lot more than books. Haven't you seen you have no friends?'

'Trying to show off out of books will get you nowhere with your dirty blood. You should just be grateful you are here.'

His heart went out to Hermione as she suddenly tore herself away from her tormentors stifling a sob and flew up the girl's dorm stairs, her shoulders shaking.

'Great work, Ron' said Simon Birch, another first year. 'Now we won't get the right answers for our work.'

'Never mind, anyone for a game of chess?' Ron answered with a laugh and with a shrug, the boys moved out of hearing range.

Finally Harry was released from that evenings help as students made their way to bed slowly and he returned to his small room to start on his own work, unfurling a large partly written essay on the properties of dried nettles when combined with crushed snake fangs.

Harry had realised that he had been granted more time to do work but that didn't mean he had to like it. Why he wondered did they not just prevent the other students using him for errands and practice but then sighing he realised that this was done to make him look weak and prevent him from making friends. He couldn't work out fully what the authorities were playing at; he knew they liked to keep him off balance but granting him more uninterrupted work time was definitely amongst the odder decisions especially as they had been the ones to limit the time he had originally. His evenings were spent with the worst of the Gryffindor students being cursed and revived until he didn't know whether he was coming or going. There were a few students who were particularly awful; the one that stood out was Percy Weasley, who seemed to be teaching his younger brother his ways. Even outside the common room Harry wasn't safe with the threat of being caught during the change of lessons and sent on ridiculous errands commonplace. Potions and Defence and the Dark Arts were also particularly bad lessons, with knives and wrong potion samples in one and his use as a target for demonstrations in the other.

On the first day of the flying lessons, Harry retreated to his room, where settling down with his potions homework, he watched the other students learning to fly with sadness in his heart. He wished he was out there soaring through the skies but with a small sigh turned back to his neglected work.

When the students straggled in from the lesson, the door to his room burst open and Ron Weasley stormed in with his broom in his hand.

'Here, clean and polish this for me' thrusting the broom towards Harry, he only waited till Harry touched it before letting go and turning away, still ranting to his friends how he had been the best at flying not that spoilt brat, Malfoy. The other boys with Ron also shoved their brooms through Harry's door only one stopping to say a shy please before following the crowd up the stairs to the boys dormitory.

Harry from under the heap of brooms stared after this last boy, a shy mousy brown haired boy, who Harry remembered seeing in passing but who didn't draw attention to himself or order Harry to do things. He racked his brain for the boys name whilst stacking the brooms neatly until it came to him; Neville Longbottom. Harry remembered the boys history, which was scarily similar to his apart from Neville had had the additional protection of being pureblood and as such after his parents had been cursed during an early death eater raid when Neville was a baby, Neville had been sent to live with his grandmother. Harry thought he had heard that the parents had changes sides after being cured under the Dark Lord's rule. It would explain Neville's appearance here as a loyal pureblood instead of being marked as a traitor like Harry if they thought he had been brought up as loyal from his early years. The stain of his parent's sin had not stuck to him.

Harry watched Neville over the next few days seeing that although part of the group, he was the shy quiet one on the outskirts who didn't take part in the battles and taunts of the others instead he was polite to everyone that he came across. The other boys tended to overlook him in their pursuits leaving Neville often alone. Harry saw him disappearing off regularly and overhearing a conversation with one of the other boys gathered that he regularly went to the greenhouses to help out.

Harry found his work slowly improving as he gained time to do it and the novelty of his position wore off with many of the students leaving him alone in the evenings. The only downside to his improvement was the increase in wand use in lessons. If Harry didn't get the spell in the lesson, there was no time for him to practice without him going begging to Snape and he knew the consequences of this would be severe. He took to trying to practice the wand movement and incantation with a quill but he didn't know whether this was helping or not as in the next class they had often moved on to a new subject, changing matches into needles and levitating feathers.

In many of the classes, Harry sat next to Hermione, who had continued the term as she had started determined to learn everything and always taking copious notes which she proceeded to inform everyone around her about. Harry had noticed that she too found it hard to keep friends and the girls in her dorm were turning against her. Several times Harry had nearly had his glasses hit as Hermione's hand soared in the air to answer the question but he sensed she was gradually getting discouraged as many of the teachers especially the newer ones favoured the purebloods answering first only turning to the muggleborn if they couldn't supply an answer.

And so the time passed with Halloween coming closer as Harry began to dread as he did every year, the 31st October. Every year since his parents had died he had been paraded through the streets of wizarding London dressed in all white with only the snake motif standing out on his clothes. He was taken to a large gathering in the centre of Diagon Alley and on the platform there he stood awkwardly whilst the chosen death eater for that year read the litany of crimes from the past regime. He was unsure what would happen this year seeing as he was confined to the Hogwarts grounds by the ever present silver band on his wrist but he guessed they would not allow this to stop them in their celebration and humiliation of him.

Harry didn't know it but the plans were all ready settled. Snape had come up with a plan to re-enact the ceremony as part of the great feast with Harry reading the litany of crimes now that he was old enough. However he had one small problem with that and that was it would attract the media of the country and he had to have Harry looking healthy.

He mused over the problem considering various scenarios. Finally he came up with a workable solution that would continue to keep Harry isolated and would ensure that he was healthier looking for Halloween than he was now. Now all he needed to do was to engineer an incident in order for the plan to be put in place. Checking Harry's location via the bracelet he smiled evilly, an idea had come to him and Harry wouldn't know what had hit him. It would also give him another opportunity to check his memories. He had noticed Harry watching Neville Longbottom over the past few weeks especially in the Great Hall and he wondered why Harry was suddenly interested in the quiet boy. Reports back from the teachers had shown the Longbottom boy to be a poor student only good at Herbology. He struggled at the wanded subjects and the reports back from Professor Begg, had showed he had no talent in potions either if the amounts of melted cauldrons were to be believed. He shrugged, the mystery of why Harry was interested in the Longbottom boy would be resolved shortly and meanwhile he had some arrangements to make. Reaching for some floo powder he threw it in the fire shouting for the potions classroom.

Please review?


	4. Halloween

As usual, the characters and places are J.K Rowling's.

Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter - I hope you enjoy this one!

Chapter 4

Harry woke on the first day of the last week of October, knowing that this week wouldn't go well and before he even got to breakfast, this was confirmed. The whispers were back and several times Harry felt spells narrowly miss him. All he could hear as he walked in the corridors between classes was whispers about the upcoming Halloween.

'I wonder what they will do about Halloween and the litany this year.'

'Mmm, there is an event on in Diagon Alley, my Mum owled me to say she was going and taking Ginny'

'I wonder why that traitor didn't die.'

'Have you seen the parade and fireworks they have a Diagon alley, my parents took us two years ago. He was there, of course, dressed in white with that symbol standing out. The fireworks were amazing'

The whispers followed him around. He could hear at breakfast that morning the older muggleborn students telling the first years the tales of the Halloweens that had gone before, the feast and the reading of the litany that was held at every major British wizarding centre since the death of his parents. Hermione predictably was full of questions but the older student, a Leanne Holms shushed her looking around nervously.

'We don't question the Dark Lord, remember, Hermione? And any way the main event may be different this year seeing as He is at Hogwarts.'

Harry wondered whether that meant him or whether the Dark Lord was really at Hogwarts. He was puzzled that in all these years apart from that one fateful Halloween night he had not seen the Dark Lord. He didn't know how often the Dark Lord usually came to Hogwarts or whether he often attended the Halloween events here but the implication in her words made him shiver. No matter what happened he was still likely to be part of the ceremony. He remembered previous Halloweens, the forced march down the street surrounded by hostile excited crowds jeering at him. The first parade when he was five, he remembered had at first been exciting, a change in routine, a chance to see different people and places. He remembered trying to run to look in shops and being held back by one of his guards. Then he had felt the atmosphere and had gradually sobered up, scared at the menacing feeling despite the jubilation that much of the crowd was showing. The feast afterwards he ate at a low table in front of the main dignitaries and as he ate he could feel every eye on him. Needless to say he usually wasn't very hungry. As the years had gone by the same routine had occurred, he had learned to dread Halloween although the only good thing was that usually the week before any punishments were either postponed or lessened. He had apparently to look in reasonable health for the public.

He made his way to Potions groaning mentally, no matter what happened in defence with Professor Thornfield, he still found Potions the hardest subject to attend. He came out of this class every time tired and covered in cuts and recently Professor Begg had been threatening to test the potions on him as well. He didn't want to think what some of the concoctions may do to him if this was carried out. He had been getting better recently avoiding many of the shoves and jostles but his hands still bore healing cuts.

Entering into the classroom, he groaned even further mentally, instead of Professor Begg sitting at his desk, the Professor sweeping in from the office door was Snape. He knew this had been the subject that Snape had taught for a while but he would rather face Begg than Snape who had so much more power over him, he thought rubbing the silver band around his wrist and going to stand in his assigned corner.

Professor Snape smiled internally as he felt the wave of horror that swept through Harry on his entrance to the classroom via the silver bracelet. The bracelet had been a good idea clearly by the Dark Lord and he had taken pleasure in seeing how Harry's emotions fluctuated depending on where he was. It had surprised him initially how much Harry hated him and after the last meeting, he had felt Harry's anger at the loss of his flying lessons. Coming back to his thoughts, he took the register pausing at Harry's name at the end, time to put step one into play.

'Ahh yes, Harry. Let us see how much you have learnt, shall we. Let's see if we can justify your place in this school. Come to the front' he said, although as Harry took his time weaving between the benches, he snapped sharply, 'now'.

Harry hurried up and took his place at the front of the classroom, shaking slightly. He wasn't used to this much attention in a class and he could feel the eyes of the class behind boring into his back.

'Tell me, what you would brew with a concoction of powdered scarabs, ginger roots and armadillo bile?'

Harry stood silently racking his brains for a potion that would contain these ingredients but he knew it was no use; they hadn't even covered scarab beetles or armadillo bile in lectures yet.

'So you don't know? Let's try a slightly easier one, then? What would the effects of polyjuice potion be?

Again Harry stood silently, feeling gradually angrier as Snape set out to deliberately humiliate him, watching as Snape stalked across the dais above him.

'Don't know? Seems you can't justify your place here, does it? Let's try an easier one then? How would you brew a forgetfulness potion?'

Harry forced himself to answer this time. 'I don't know, sir.' He could feel the class behind stirring as someone knew the answer to this one at least and added bravely 'but I think someone may do behind me, though sir, perhaps you could ask them?'

The moment the words came out of his mouth he knew that they had been a mistake. Snape whirled round and slapped him hard pushing him back where he stood. There were gasps behind him at the physical punishment but Harry knew that wouldn't be all, it never was. He dropped his eyes as Snape stared furiously at him, worrying now about what his punishment would be.

Above him he heard Snape say, 'Cheek is never rewarded, you will stand in the corner with your back to us for the rest of the lesson.' As he turned to go back to his usual corner, his shoulder was caught and he was instead directed to a corner at the front of the classroom, where feeling like a child in disgrace, he miserably took his place feeling the stares behind him multiply. He could hear Malfoy laughing with his friends at him and the other Gryffindors whispering furiously until Snape shouted 'Silence' and complete silence fell across the classroom.

'For your information, a concoction of powdered scarabs, ginger roots and armadillo bile would produce a wit sharpening potion, a polyjuice potion drunk with the essence of another person in it will turn you into them for an hour and a forgetfulness potion is brewed with crushed sea snail shells, diced tumeric root, knotgrass and pomegranate juice. Well, why aren't you copying this down?'

Harry could hear the rustles as the students hurriedly got out parchment, ink and quills. He could hear Malfoy ask as this happened. 'Sir, where is Professor Begg today?'

'Professor Begg is unfortunately indisposed and I am taking his classes for today. Now back to the lesson, who can tell me about the properties of Bugloss and Dogsbane when combined together?' As Snape continued with his lesson, eventually setting the class to producing the Falsehood detecting potion, Harry listened from his corner. The potion was a lesser form of Veritaserum, which only showed when a person was lying and didn't force them to tell the truth. Strangely he actually found Snape's teaching clearer than Begg's perhaps because Snape was the better Potion Master. His position as the Dark Lord's personal Potion Master showed this. The Dark Lord still feared assassination attempts and would only eat or drink when he knew it was safe, at least this is what Harry had heard. Not having seen the man it was difficult to tell.

During the practical part of the lesson, Harry could hear Malfoy and Ron especially complaining about having to prepare their own ingredients for a change but Snape ignored them and Harry was left isolated in the corner wondering what was going to happen to him.

Eventually the lesson ended and as the students were leaving, he was called out of his corner and told to follow Snape back to the Headmaster's office, where he stood nervously in front of the desk as Snape ignored him straightening out the desk and reading several messages before lifting his head.

'What have you been taught about not being cheeky?' he asked.

Harry, still looking at the floor, miserably mumbled 'not to be, sir'

'Speak up, boy, or else I will wash your mouth out with soap again, you are skirting very close to it.'

Harry did look up swiftly at this and then returned his gaze to the floor. He had been subjected to this several times over the years after he had been cheeky or rude and the unpleasant taste of the soap, the spell used lingered in his mouth for days. 'Yes, sir' he said clearly this time.

'Now do you have a reason for your disgraceful display today?' Snape demanded

'No, sir'

'Now to your punishment, as you clearly aren't fit at the moment to associate with the high standing pupils of this school, you will remain in isolation for the rest of this month. Through that door,' he said indicating a small door in the room, 'is the room you will not leave until told. You may leave your books here.'

Harry shuffled over to the indicated door and as he went through, it slammed behind him with all the finality of a prison door. This was a new punishment and he didn't know what to expect. The room itself was small and contained only a bed, a toilet and a sink. Harry sat on the bed slowly wondering what he was to do for the next few days, whether he would be fed and how long the magically produced light would stay on for. His stomach rumbled as he realised it was dinner time and he knew his feeling that morning had been correct; this was going to be a bad week.

After Harry had sat there for an hour or so, a house elf popped into existence with a bowl of soup. Harry ate it thankful he wasn't to be starved but then a thought crossed his mind that they needed him to be healthy for Halloween. Then he wondered how they were managing Halloween if he was stuck in this room. Finishing the soup, he went back to his bored thoughts until the light in the room faded and he found himself going to sleep.

The next day passed in a similar fashion. A house-elf delivered meals although they all tasted strangely similar and Harry lay on his bed bored until the light faded again. He couldn't help thinking how far behind he would be getting in all his classes. It took him enough time as it was to keep up with the classses, to catch up would be nearly impossible.

He spent some time musing what the taste of the meals was. After some thought it came to him, the meals tasted of healing potions. He looked down at his hands and sure enough, the cuts were disappearing quicker than he healed naturally.

While not painful, this punishment had to be one of the most boring he had received and he welcomed the house elf the day after, which came bearing a book and a collection of potion ingredients to prepare. He scowled at the flobberworms, which he had been faced with preparing before and turned to the book, which was his potions textbook. He lay there on the bed reading the recipes and trying to grasp the effects of some ingredients on others until he got bored. Then he set to work with the ingredients and rapidly prepared the flobberworms, thinking it was much easier without a class around him. The house-elf came back and collected the prepared ingredients as Harry washed his hands trying to get the flobberworm mucus from them. That evening he heard the door unlock and Snape came in.

'Tomorrow is Halloween. You will not be going to Diagon Alley though as your bracelet restricts you to Hogwarts. Instead we are to have our own litany reading for which you will be present. It has been decided that this year you are old enough and therefore you will read the litany to the staff and students. You will spend the day kneeling before the Dark Lord's picture in the Great Hall; you will not say a word other than reading the litany. Any divergence from this and you will be punished.' With this Snape swept out of the room his robes billowing behind him and the door locked itself once again leaving Harry to imagine what tomorrow would bring.

Harry woke to find clothes laid out at the bottom of his bed and a new shower. Having showered he dressed himself sadly in the white clothes with the ever present design on them. Every year he had been presented with white clothes on this day, to stand out in them walking through Diagon Alley. His guards and teachers had always mocked at the innocence that white showed but Harry didn't think he was that innocent, not now at any rate. He supposed the vigil this year was taking place of the walk, a way for him to be exposed to the students without going over the top. He really didn't look forward to kneeling in one place for a long time though.

Having got dressed he found himself with nothing to do until lunchtime when having had lunch, Snape appeared and he was marched down from the office to the Great Hall. Here all the students were sitting laughing and having fun, until he and Snape appeared in the door to the Hall. Then silence spread across the hall and all eyes were riveted on Harry's small figure. Snape walked forward to the front of the hall, leaving Harry stood in the doorway.

'Today is the anniversary of the Dark Lord's victory over the corrupt regime that formerly imposed its power over our land. Today, we celebrate the new order and remember the mistakes of the old ministry, in the hope that these same mistakes will not be repeated in the future. You are the symbols of the new future, the hope that the new regime will continue to flourish and it is for this that you work and play hard, here at Hogwarts. Here you learn and forge connections that will last you for your lifetime. We will celebrate this evening with a feast and the annual reading of the litany of sins but for now we have a treat that normally occurs in Diagon Alley at this time. The living symbol of the Dark Lord's benevolence and the crimes of the past order will kneel in vigil here under the portrait of our great Leader. Come forward, traitor.'

Harry walked slowly forward as the jeers started. Insults to his parents and others of the old regime rang around the hall lead by the Slytherins. At the top table, Harry could see some of the staff sitting in rigid silence, McGonagall with her lips pressed firmly together looked disapprovingly at the antics of the students.

Harry had never known the hall was so long but he reached the end and knelt as gracefully as possible at the spot indicated by Snape in front of the portrait of the Dark Lord. Bowing his head with his back to the students he fought to keep tears from coming. The jeers always stung, as memories of his parents and the manner of their death swept through his mind. He heard behind him students leaving the hall for their afternoon lessons and he felt himself relax slightly as the threats from behind lessened.

The afternoon dragged on. Snape came twice to allow Harry to stretch his cramping legs but by the time the students came in for the feast, he was heartily sick of the patch of stone he had been staring at. This time, Begg came to him and roughly pulled him up forcing him to stand on his cramped knees. He could hear Snape welcoming students to the feast and the litany being introduced.

'All apart from the First Years will know that I usually read the litany but this year it has been decided that the symbol of the previous regime will read the crimes, his parents and others were responsible.'

Harry was shoved to the front by Professor Begg and Snape handed him a scroll. All eyes were focused on him and he stammered slightly as he started to unfurl the scroll and read.

'This is the sins of the ministry, and the old order before the Dark Lord swept across and brought a new way to life; a way in which purebloods received their correct recognition. These are the crimes of the old order:

The previous regime was corrupt. Many people were tried and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit whilst others were allowed to walk freely committing atrocities without punishment, either in the name of the light, through bribery or claiming the imperious curse. Nowhere was this more concentrated than in the Order of the Phoenix led by the Greatest Traitor. This vigilante organisation operated for many years under the banner of the light, lording over the ordinary witch or wizard. They committed many crimes including illegal use of veritaserum, attacks on everyday citizens and torture. They tried to dictate their beliefs to all crushing the traditions that had sustained many of our families for centuries.

The Ministry were equally responsible for the faults of the last Government. They were weak allowing such vigilante organisations to exist. This weakness was caused by the presence of Muggleborn in the Government, who did not understand our world and sought to ally us to the weak muggle world. The Muggleborn stole jobs and wealth from those more deserving than them. No one put them in their rightful place instead this was encouraged by the Government and from the education at Hogwarts. Here Muggleborn were encouraged to think of themselves as equal in strength and power, this lead to the standards of the Great institution falling. Traditions were lost and magic watered down to cater for those who had never heard or practised. These children going through the school were brainwashed into thinking of the Great Traitor as a leader of our society, their loyalties to him rather than to the Government and the country.

Marriage was allowed between muggles and wizards creating a risk that our society will be exposed to muggles. This weakened our magic.

The Press was allowed free reign over publishing creating scandals and gossip rather than accurate news reporting. This meant our press became inaccurate and untrustworthy. Thus ends the Litany of Crimes. All Hail the Dark Lord for the new order in our world'

'All Hail' the students and teachers replied.

Harry rolled the scroll back up and was guided away by Professor Begg as Snape once again addressed the students.

'Now that the solemn part of our evening is done, we can now celebrate the changes in our society. I invite all of you to eat your fill and rejoice in the better society that we now live in.' clapping his hands, the feast appeared on the table and noise level in the hall rose as people began to eat.

Not that Harry saw any of this, he had been guided by Begg to a small room behind the dais and here he was left with some bread and butter to eat. Ignoring the food, he burst into tears, the emotions of the moment becoming too much. It was now approaching the time that his parents had been murdered in front of his eyes.

He was released from here by Thornfield and ordered to go back to his room after the feast. Going into his room, Harry tripped over a pile of parchment left near the door. Looking closer at the parchment, he saw they were covered in close dense writing and with sudden shock, recognised the writing as Hermione's. There was a note on top.

_Dear Harry,_

_I don't know why you have suddenly disappeared but people are saying it is due to Halloween. I don't believe the way they treat you is right and this society is wrong. However we are both trapped in its coils now. I have copied my notes for you in case you need them and I have made a note of all the homework assignments for you, so you don't have a chance to fall further behind and get further punishment._

_Hermione_

Harry looked at the note stunned. No one since his parents had died had helped him like this giving help for nothing at least nothing he could see and from what he had observed of Hermione so far it was likely done without motive. He had been worrying about dropping further behind in his classes thanks to Snape although he now knew the Potions textbook much better. He decided that the best thing to do was to wake up early before breakfast and to try to complete something for the day's assignments then rather than starting to read through the notes now.

He tore the hated clothes off and stumbled towards the bed, collapsing in sleep. He slept soundly, not hearing the other students come in laughing and joking in the common room until McGonagall appeared and chased them to bed. For the moment, he was at peace.

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	5. Skirmishes

Thanks to previous reviewers and as usual, the characters and places are J.K. Rowlings.

Chapter five

Harry got some of his work done the next morning before heading off to breakfast, the school felt large after the small room he spent much of the last few days in and his mood had cheered up now that Halloween was over. He resolved to try to study harder and avoid Snape where ever possible.

His mood plummeted slightly as the mornings owls flew in as he saw himself on the front cover with headlines about the Halloween proceedings at Hogwarts and Diagon alley. He ate quickly and went to his first class, which was Herbology. There Professor Sprout eyed him sadly but unable to say anything to him, outside of school work, she ignored him and got on with the lesson on Flutterby bushes, once everyone else had arrived.

In Charms later on, Harry sat next to Hermione and careful not to be observed, he slid a note across to her.

_Dear Hermione,_

_Thanks for the notes. They will be a great help. That was the nicest thing that has happened to me for year; it cheered me up when I got back. I'm used to the treatment now and there is nothing you can do about it, so don't worry about me. _

_Harry_

Later she slid one back. Harry was startled, so far she had seemed a strict student unwilling to notice anything other than the lesson but he casually looked at the note.

_Dear Harry,_

_You shouldn't have to be used to that sort of treatment. It was disgraceful at the feast last night and they are so hypocritical on their litany. They commit many of the same crimes and don't show it. It's not right. They shouldn't treat a kid like this – how can it be your fault, you were only four._

_Hermione_

Harry found himself in a dilemma. Whilst it was great that someone had finally approached him to make friends and ease the loneliness that plagued him, he was left with two problems. One he wasn't supposed to talk to people and if Snape found out he would be punished and two, she seemed to very anti regime and if Harry was caught associating with these thoughts or agreeing with them, the punishment would be much worse. He rubbed the bracelet around the wrist hoping that Snape wasn't feeling his turmoil and thought hard about this until Professor Flitwick called his name repeatedly and he was forced to pay attention to the class, to jeers around the room.

Harry, by the dint of working to the early morning on several nights, finally got caught up on his work that he had missed. He continued writing notes to Hermione in the lessons they sat near each other and she was swiftly becoming the closest thing to a friend he had ever had. The pureblood teasing of them both didn't die down if anything in Harry's case the events of Halloween brought him more pain as people again realised he was there. Although many remembering what he stood for still avoided him, which he didn't mind.

Neville had been continuing his glances at Harry and Harry had seen him talk to Hermione several times, choosing not to join in with the pureblood bullying of her and the other muggleborns. He had spent much of his time in the greenhouses and not with Ron and his group of friends.

They had continued to work on the Wingardium Leviosa charm in Charms gradually moving on to bigger and heavier items. It was good they had done this as it gave Harry time to catch up. However, this particular lesson Ron Weasley was having problems getting his charm to work. Whacking his wand on the desk impatiently, he snarled, muttering loudly under his breath as he then prodded at the feather he was trying to move, setting it on fire. Flitwick noticed as Simon Birch used his hat to try to put the flames out and came across the room.

'Now, now, Mr Weasley, patience is required. Just say the words correctly and you will get there. Start again with another feather.'

'Bloody charm, bloody wand', Ron grumbled, as Flitwick left, looking over to where Hermione was carefully floating her book around the room 'I bet that mudblood stole the magic from it. It bloody worked before.'

As the class was dismissed just then with admonishments to those who still couldn't perform the charm well to practise before the next lesson, Harry didn't hear the next comment as he lingered having to return his wand to Professor Flitwick before he could go. However getting outside the classroom he saw Ron was menacing Hermione.

'No wonder you haven't got any friends, you filthy mudblood, if you go round stealing people's magic. Honestly no one can stand you, why don't you crawl back to your hovel.' Hermione gave a sob and tried to shove past Ron but he was holding her pinned to the wall surrounded by his gang. 'Why you are even allowed a wand is beyond me. You should give us your magic.'

Harry stepped forward, he didn't know what he was going to do being unarmed but he couldn't leave Hermione there.

'Weasley, stop it, leave her alone. It isn't Hermione's fault you can't get the spell to work.'

Ron spun round on hearing Harry's voice, loosening his hold on Hermione, who fled down the corridor in tears. Ron and his gang didn't pay any attention to her now they had found a new target to bully.

'So the traitor protects mudbloods, does he?' Harry backed away as Ron and Simon came towards him, their wands out threateningly. However the hit came from the side where Geraldus was standing. Harry doubled over as the blow struck wincing with pain but tried to stand up as other blows rained down on him from the three of them. He tried to fight back and did feel his fist connect a couple of times but three on one was only ever going to have one result. Luckily, they got bored and ran off to their next class leaving Harry curled in a heap on the floor, breathing heavily as he felt his nose bleeding from a punch that Ron had thrown.

Slowly uncurling from the floor and wincing as he moved, Harry heard a whispered healing charm and felt the pain and the blood flowing from his nose, vanish. Standing up, he saw Professor Flitwick vanish back into his classroom, the oath preventing him from speaking to Harry but Harry went on to his next class knowing that some one still cared slightly about him. The fact that he was late for his next class didn't worry him until he arrived there and was forced to stand as punishment the whole class. The three boys who had been beating him up had apparently arrived just on time and looking over Harry could see where a few of his blows had landed. Simon Birch had a developing black eye and Geraldus Mallory had a bruise appearing on his jaw. It was only later that he realised that Hermione hadn't been to that class or any of the other classes that day, when he failed to see her at dinner.

He sat at dinner eating his food slowly trying to shorten the time he would have to be in the common room and worrying about Hermione until Professor Thirkell ran through the doors and panting shouted.

'Troll… in the dungeons...near the potions classroom'

There was instant pandemonium until with a blast from his wand, Snape made him self heard.

'Students will remain calm. Ravenclaws and Gryffindors will return to their common rooms for the rest of the evening. Prefects and Head of Houses will escort their houses back. Slytherins and Hufflepuffs will stay in the hall until the dungeons are cleared'

The students began to file out in their house order. Harry was the last of the Gryffindors and up front he could see Percy Weasley talking to Ron and ignoring all the lesser students behind.

'Well, of course the staff will deal with it. It is just a minor inconvenience, nothing to worry about. Come along now, more time to finish your homework.' Percy announced hustling the students he was with along the corridor.

Then he remembered, Hermione, she didn't know about the troll. He stopped and thought for a moment trying to work out where she might be. He didn't see Neville looking back as Percy hustled Ron around the corner and out of sight but he was broken out of his thought by Neville's voice calmly saying.

'Hermione is missing, isn't she, after Ron and the others were teasing her earlier. I heard Deidre say during lessons; she was crying in the girls' bathroom on the third floor, she is probably still there.'

With this he took off running. Climbing the stairs rapidly which for once seemed to help them. Harry followed, startled that a pureblood would be willing talk to him and to help him and Hermione but Neville always had been different.

Getting to the third floor, he caught up with Neville, who was sniffing. Harry took a sniff and was overwhelmed by the smell of stale, smelly socks. As they stood there, the smell grew worse.

'I don't think the troll is in the dungeons any more' he said nervously as it appeared around the corner. Harry looked round suddenly remembering he was weaponless against a troll with no wand and trying to find anything he could use to defend himself. It had seemed a good idea only a few minutes ago to go and help Hermione but now it was rapidly becoming a much, much worse idea. Seeing a nearby set of armour he quickly wrenched the sword from its hands and ran with Neville to the nearest door.

It turned out to be the girls' bathroom and they could hear Hermione sobbing in a cubicle.

'Hermione' they shouted, over the pounding footsteps outside from the troll.

The crying stopped suddenly but just then the troll burst through the door. The door splinters narrowly missed Neville and he ran to the other side of the bathroom just in time to avoid the troll lumbering in. It grunted and with a wave of its club, several cubicles were demolished.

They could see Hermione was crouched on the floor in one of the demolished cubicles, frozen to the spot as she dried her eyes.

Neville started throwing pieces of debris at the troll as it drew the club back for another swipe. Harry seeing the troll wasn't responding ran forward with the sword. Dodging the club which swung towards him, he grabbed hold of the trolls arm and ran up its' back, swiping at the skull with the sword with little effect against its hard skin.

He could hear Neville shouting 'Wingardium Leviosa' and the club flew out of the trolls hand landing with a crash on the floor. Hermione was still crouched in the destroyed cubicle, her eyes wide and frightened.

The removal of the club threw the troll off balance and it staggered. Harry slid down the troll's arm, his stance on the trolls head being jolted, landing with a crash on the floor, where the troll noticed him again and started to come forward. He backed away towards the wall but the troll kept coming. Dimly, he could here Neville shouting and throwing bit s of debris but he only had eyes for the troll coming towards him. He noticed he had maintained a hold on the sword despite being thrown around and with an effort as his ribs hurt from his earlier fall, he thrust the sword forward into the troll's face, when the troll got close, stabbing with a lucky thrust into an eye. The troll bellowed and Harry lunged forward again this time plunging the sword into the troll's opened mouth. With an enormous crash the troll collapsed onto the floor, just in front of them, where Harry and Neville stood staring at it.

They heard Hermione uncurling and turned to her just as pounding feet were heard in the corridor and Snape, Begg and Thirkell ran through the door.

'What has been going on here?' Snape asked, staring at the scene. Neville had his wand out, whilst Harry stood holding a bloody sword over the body of a troll. Hermione was standing in the middle of the wrecked cubicles looking dazed.

No one spoke. Snape frowned and looked at Harry pointedly, who dropped the sword with a clatter that rang in the quiet room, switching his gaze to Neville. Harry could see him looking into the boy's eyes and he realised that he was probably watching the entire set of events from when he had told them to leave the hall.

'So, you decided to play hero, did you? Rescue the damsel in distress? Why did you not inform a teacher or a prefect, either of you, that Miss Granger was missing?' Snape asked scathingly. Harry could feel in front of him, Neville Longbottom flinching but he held himself upright.

'If we had, Hermione would be dead' he burst out 'the troll was coming this way, she wouldn't have known if we had lingered to tell you.'

Snape sneered at him. 'What's one untrained muggleborn more or less? Mr Longbottom is worth more and should know better than to put himself in such risks. Mr Longbottom, you will serve detention tomorrow night with Professor Begg for your suicidal tendencies but Gryffindor will receive 20 points for your heroic actions tonight. Miss Granger, you will also have detention tomorrow night to impress on you the need to be at meals. Professor Thirkell, will you escort Mr Longbottom and Miss Granger to the hospital wing for a check up after their adventure. Harry and I need to have a word about his actions tonight.'

'Yes, Headmaster' Professor Thirkell said as he ushered Neville and Hermione out of the room. Neville and Hermione looked at him nervously and he glanced at them smiling to show he was fine, when internally he was quaking. What was Snape going to do to him? He had found him wielding a sword of all things and interacting with other students.

'Come forward, Harry, bring the sword with you' directed Snape.

Harry picked up the sword and moved forward warily climbing over the trolls arm in order to stand in front of Snape. Snape took the sword and wordlessly inspected it, handing it to Professor Begg, who took it and gasped at the name on the handle. He didn't say anything but instead stared at Harry, who now the adrenaline was wearing off was feeling very nervous.

'So, you decided to play hero. Trying to make yourself popular? Rescue the one muggleborn who likes you?' Snape sneered. 'Where does it say in your rules that you are to go chasing after trolls and killing them with swords? Answer me.'

'Nowhere, sir, but I couldn't leave her to die. The troll was coming right at her. And anyway the troll was in the dungeons, why was it up here?' Harry asked as he suddenly remembered his surprise at seeing the troll. 'If it hadn't appeared we would have just told Hermione and then gone back to the common room.'

'Silence, boy. You will only answer the questions.' Snape snapped. 'Where did you get the sword from?'

'From the suit of armour just outside, when the troll was coming at us.'

'Why did you decide to take it, knowing you weren't allowed a weapon or a wand?'

'The troll was coming towards us and I couldn't face it unarmed.'

'A poor excuse. You will be punished for this. Why have you allowed yourself to make friends with this muggleborn and worse a pureblood?'

'I haven't. I haven't spoken to them' Harry protested.

'And yet you rush off with one to rescue another. I see you have too much time on your hands clearly' said Snape. 'You will come to my office in 30 minutes to receive your punishment. Professor Begg, escort Harry to the Gryffindor common room to fetch his belongings and then bring him to my office.'

Harry's heart sank. He was being expelled for this, he knew it. Then he would end up being sent back to the miserable small cottage he had spent the last few years in, stuck in the middle of the fens, no hills, no trees just flat land to the horizon. He trudged miserably past Snape to where Professor Begg was waiting. He was shoved out of the ruined door and waited as Professor Begg handed the sword back to Snape and then followed him sadly up to the common room.

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	6. Repercussions

Thanks for the reviews. This chapter has taken longer to publish as I like to keep my writing several chapters ahead of the published chapters, however I have been struggling with the chapter I am currently writing. Possibly because it deals with Christmas and it has been sunny and warm outside! I know where I want it to go, it is just refusing to go there.

Any way, the characters and places belong to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 6

Snape went back to his office, where he threw a handful of floo powder on the fire. 'My Lord, there has been an incident. I need your permission to punish Harry.'

He stepped back, kneeling down as Voldemort emerged from the floo looking angry.

'What has the boy done now to warrant disturbing me?'

'Well, my Lord, someone released a troll into the school, I intend to find out who and why' said Snape. 'Professor Thornfield discovered it and came to the Great Hall to raise the alert. I dismissed the children keeping the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins in the hall as the troll was at that stage in the dungeons. The Ravenclaws and Gryffindors had strict orders to go back to their common rooms accompanied by their prefects and Professors Flitwick and McGonagall.'

'Why did you not make all the students stay in the same place?' Voldemort asked coldly.

'My lord, I felt it would be better to keep the houses separate with few teachers in the room. The Gryffindors and Slytherins are still volatile when left alone. I also thought it would be less disruption for tomorrow if the students could get to a place where they could sleep easily. I also did not know who had let the troll in. McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout are the most likely to rebel and so I chose to keep them busy and out of the way.'

'Very well, Severus, but next time, keep the students together where they can be safely managed and protected' said Voldemort coldly. 'I trust you will punish McGonagall for her lapse.'

'Yes, Lord. Having left the Great Hall, Harry and Mr Longbottom decided they would go and find a missing muggleborn girl, who was hiding in the girls' loos on the third floor. Reaching there they discovered the troll had left the dungeons. I believe that Mr Longbottom levitated the trolls club away from him whilst Harry grabbed a sword from a suit of armour and stabbed the troll managing to kill it. This was when we came on the scene having followed the troll's trail from the dungeons.' Snape explained.

'Do you know why the mudblood was hiding in the toilets?' Voldemort asked.

'I believe she was hiding from the Gryffindor boys who had been teasing her earlier. She missed her classes this afternoon, her professors told me earlier,' said Snape.

'I trust you will be punishing her for missing lessons?' said Voldemort.

'I will, My Lord, I shall inform her tomorrow that she will serve a detention for each missed lesson as well as the one she earned for being out of place this evening,' said Snape.

'Very well, I hope you have impressed on Mr Longbottom and the mudblood the severity of their actions. I presume you will keep the mudblood in mind as a suspect for releasing the troll as her actions could be suspicious.'

'I think it unlikely even precocious as she is, she could manage to bring a troll into the castle on her own but I will check out any potential accomplices seeing as she has been outspoken about disliking the political regime,' said Snape.

'Longbottom, eh, his parents were converts to the side after being tortured and recovering. The boy was brought up mainly with his Grandmother?' Voldemort mused. 'I wonder what his reasoning behind accompanying Harry was. I should hope his Grandmother has brought him up correctly. I would keep an eye on him as well; Severus and I will check his parents and Grandmother's loyalty.'

'Of course, My Lord, they have both received detentions with Professor Begg for their actions this evening. Should I stop them interacting with Harry?' Snape asked.

'Hmm, I wouldn't. If they wish to make themselves outcasts in this regime, they may. We may as well keep any potential rebellions where we can see the participants. Just keep an eye on them in case it goes further. The boys' grandmother though may stop him if she realises what is happening, his parents aren't worth anything really after the torture, thanks to Bella. As for the mudblood, she will learn in the summer holidays what happens to those who gain the wrong connections.'

'Very well, My Lord. There was one other thing about the problem. The sword, the boy grabbed was Godric Gryffindor's.'

'What? Where is it?' Voldemort whirled from where he was looking in the fire and stalked towards Snape who flinched slightly as he knelt.

'It is on my desk, My Lord.'

'How did the boy find that? It has been missing for 500 years. What are the chances he just picked it up by accident? I shall have to take it with me and study it. Let no one else know about this.' Voldemort mused as he looked down at the sword, which lay on the desk still covered with troll blood, the jewels sparkling in the candlelight and the name clearly showing on the blade. 'Right, now to the boy's punishment.'

'I have already sent him with Professor Begg to collect his stuff from the Gryffindor tower.' Snape interjected into Voldemort's musing.

'Good, now he needs punishment for grabbing a weapon, running off without permission and associating with others against the rules.'

'I thought, My Lord, that I would move him to living accommodation near to a teacher. Possibly Professor Begg, he could then in his spare time away from lessons aid the professor in his preparations.'

'Yes, clearly living in the dormitories has let him run wild. However, in the matter of the sword, further punishment is needed. He should know that he is not allowed a defence method outside of lessons and to choose a sword… I don't know what he was thinking but it must be stopped. I will give you permission to impress this lesson on him further, 10 strokes to the hand and then to his bottom should be sufficient.'

'Thank you, My Lord. Ahh, here he comes.'

'Well then I shall go. Congratulations on your Halloween plans though, Severus, most masterful. The press coverage was sufficient with the boy in reasonable health. The vigil could be expanded next year though.'

'Good night, My Lord.' Snape rose from his kneeling position as Voldemort disappeared and taking a seat behind his desk, called, 'come in.'

Harry crept into his office tugging his trunk. Professor Begg followed him scowling as Harry came to halt in front of the desk, looking down miserably.

'Professor Begg, if you would stay.' asked Snape. 'Harry, tell me why did you pick up that sword?'

Harry answered slowly, still staring at the ground. 'It was the nearest weapon when we realised the troll was coming and I realised I didn't have any way of protecting myself.' He looked up and bit more passionately, continued his answer. 'It was just a spur of the moment thing, honest, sir. I didn't mean anything else with it.'

'That is beside the point,' Snape said coldly. 'Did you not think that having a sword would fall under the same category as not being allowed your wand?'

'But sir, the troll was coming.'

'Yes, because you had disobeyed and left your housemates, dragging Neville Longbottom into trouble. Did you decide the rules about not associating with anyone lest your filth contaminate them did not apply? '

'No, no. That isn't what happened. Neville stopped and helped at the same time. I didn't drag him'

'Silence, stop making excuses.' Snape snapped. 'You broke the rules and although you got lucky this time, you will learn to stay safe and follow the rules. Haven't you learnt this yet?'

Harry sensing this was a rhetorical question stayed quiet, wondering what was coming.

'You will no longer be housed in the Gryffindor dormitory as it is clear you are a bad influence on them. You will occupy a room next to Professor Begg's quarters and you will obey every order he may have for you. Is this clear? You will have a week of detentions with Mr Filch starting tomorrow. You will also receive a caning. Ten strokes to the hand for stealing a weapon and ten to the bottom for running away and cheek. Is that clear?' Snape said sternly.

'Yes sir' replied Harry, looking up slightly in shock. He wasn't being expelled. He could stay and carry on learning magic. After his thoughts of the last half hour to learn he wasn't being expelled was such a relief. He hadn't been ready to stop learning magic and the thoughts of what would happen to him if he was expelled were the stuff of nightmares. The punishment didn't faze him too much. If anything it would be a relief to get away from the Gryffindors and their spell practice although Professor Begg had the capacity and authority to be much worse but he would cope with that when it occurred.

'Come forward and present your right hand' said Snape, transfiguring a piece of paper into a cane, which he flexed and swished through the air. The whistling sound the cane made travelling through the air on the practice stroke made Harry shiver but he stood his ground holding out his hand. He had been punished twice before like this for attempting to run away from his guards, when he was younger. He had learnt his lesson from that and hadn't tried running away again even if the first time had been more childish high spirits and not a proper attempt.

The cane came down and it landed on Harry's hand with a thwack. Harry bit his lip to keep from crying out as the stripe of pain blossomed on his palm. The cane came down hard again and the pain grew. Snape sat, methodically bringing the cane down on Harry's hand with no expression on his face other than concentration. Professor Begg also stood motionless in the corner of the room making no effort to interfere.

When Snape was finished, he said calmly and without a hint of emotion for the boy in front of him, who had screwed his face up in pain and was cradling his injured hand. 'Turn around against the desk, bend over and raise your robe.'

Harry had seen in old photos of the school that the uniform used to be more muggle in style with a robe over the top but now it was proper wizarding dress. The robe was worn on its own over underwear, although the cut was different for men and women. However now as he followed Snape's orders trying to ignore his throbbing hand, he wished that the muggle style uniform with trousers was still in use as it would have provided more padding for what was about to happen.

He held onto this thought and braced himself as the blows started. He focused on Snape's counting away from the pain and gritted teeth against making a noise. At the end, when he stood up, he winced and guessed it would be very hard to sit down for the next couple of days without anything soft to sit on.

'You will now follow Professor Begg to your new accommodation. Your first detention with Mr Filch will be at seven tomorrow evening. You may go and wait outside the door until Professor Begg is ready to take you down.'

'Yes sir' Harry replied and left the room slowly, cradling his hand and pulling his trunk with his other hand. Outside the office he stood trying to avoid leaning on anything to increase the pain and waited wondering what Professor Begg would have him do and how bad the detentions with Filch would be.

Inside Snape turned to Professor Begg. 'Garulf, I discussed this with the Dark Lord. You have his permission to use the boy for all tasks; however he needs to remain relatively free from harm. By the time you get down to your quarters, there will be a room created next to yours. You have power over the locking and password and the power to inspect it regularly. Thank you for your help this evening.'

'You are welcome, headmaster. I feel the potions supplies and hospital potions will have never been as well stocked as they will become in this next few weeks.' He gave an smirk, equal to one of Snape's and taking his leave left the room gesturing as he swept out for Harry to follow him and bring his stuff.

He kept up a rapid pace on the way down to the dungeons and passing the potions classroom they stopped outside of a small portrait, which Begg addressed.

'This is your new occupant. The password is to be 'Snake-marked traitor'.'

Harry suppressed a groan. That password was designed to hurt him every time he said it. He turned his attention back to Begg who was still talking.

'…Will allow Professor Snape and myself access when required. Now boy, you will deposit your bag and then meet me in the potions classroom. I am deeply behind in my brewing schedule thanks to your furore this evening.'

Harry went in to the room. It was bare like his other room with a small en-suite and a pallet on the floor. However this time the room did not have a window. He dumped his trunk and turned to go, suddenly very tired and wishing he could just go to bed. The stress of the evening was catching up with him chasing the high point of the morning, Flitwick's healing, away.

He realised he had been standing in the room without moving for a while and rushed to reach the potions room quickly. Once there he tried to ignore Professor Begg's sneering comments as he was set to work gutting flobberworms.

Eventually allowed to crawl into bed, aching and sore, he was woken early by Professor Begg in order to help him prepare the ingredients for the day's classes. Creeping into breakfast, aware that his homework for the day was not done, he saw Hermione come and sit next to him as he sat slowly at the bench wincing slightly at the fresh wave of pain this brought.

'Thanks for saving my life last night and interfering in the morning. I hope you are alright and they aren't punishing you too badly.' Hermione said rapidly.

He looked up from his breakfast sharply. No one had ever thanked him before or at least not since his parents had been killed.

'It was nothing. You didn't know about the troll'

'Oh, Harry,' and she leant forward and hugged him.

He froze. Forget thanking him, it was definite that no one had hugged him since his parents died. Hermione sat up slowly, looking at him, her breakfast discarded.

'What's the matter?' she looked at him curiously.

He flushed and looked down.

'Harry, what's wrong?'

He carried on looking down trying not to cry from the unexpected physical contact and thought behind it. His mind was racing thinking about the hug and his reaction. Then a thought crossed his mind.

'Hermione, you shouldn't be here. You'll get into trouble associating with me.'

'Harry, I've told you I think it is wrong what they are doing to you. I'm not going to follow their ridiculous prejudices.' She said impatiently. 'Come on, let's go to class.'

She tugged him up and he followed, his mind still racing. This continued as they approached the greenhouses until Draco Malfoy appeared.

'Oh look, it is the traitor and the mudblood together. They will produce enough manure from their filth for our lesson'

Harry whirled to face Malfoy, who had his wand out aiming it at Hermione. Others crowded round watching the stand off. Harry was once again acutely aware of his lack of a wand although Hermione next to him had her wand out and he sensed Neville coming up to them with his wand out.

Then Professor Sprout's voice rang out and they relaxed following her into the greenhouse. As they walked in, Neville came up to Harry.

'Harry, I hope you are alright after last night and that you didn't get into too much trouble.'

'No, I'm fine' he managed to whisper back before they took their places and the lesson began. However, all through it Harry hugged himself mentally, people cared. They weren't avoiding him despite what had been said. Clearly knocking out trolls helped in making friends but after the punishment he had got he still might think twice about facing any more.

Again at lunch, Hermione sat next to him although this time she didn't say anything. Harry sat quietly still puzzled at their actions towards him. Once they had finished eating, she nodded at Neville and grabbing Harry's arm, pulled him away from the Great Hall into a nearby classroom, which she proceeded to lock once Neville had entered.

'Harry, we want to be friends.' Hermione said.

Harry shrunk back. 'You can't be friends with me, it isn't allowed. You will just get into more trouble.'

Hermione approached, where Harry was sitting with Neville behind her. She laid an arm around him. This time he tried not to freeze so obviously.

'Harry, you need friends. We can help' she said. 'Neville especially can make sure you only have to follow his orders not Ron's and the other older students. You can come and study with us in the evenings. We can find an empty classroom or some where to practice in.'

Neville behind her, nodded. 'Hermione's right, you can't keep going through seven years here like this. We can offer you some protection.'

Harry sat thinking fiddling with the silver band around his wrist. 'People won't like you trying to be friends with me. You'll get into trouble with Snape.' He said slowly trying to rational although his heart was fluttering with delight.

'Harry, we don't care. We have already thought about this. We already have detentions with Professor Begg tonight. We just want to help,' said Neville forcefully.

Harry sat up a bit, thinking about how he had felt earlier when they had talked to him. 'Ok, we'll try but if things get too bad especially for you Neville, don't feel you have to stay friends with me.'

Then Hermione shrieked. 'Look at the time; we better head off to Potions quickly before we are late.'

The three of them grabbed their bags and tore out of the classroom to the dungeons arriving just in time. Harry felt happier throughout the lesson and ignored the jeering of Professor Begg and many of the other students as he made his way round and chopped and sliced ingredients for the other students. Even staying at the end to clean cauldrons didn't hurt his mood although Professor Begg's admonishment at the end that he was now to come down at the end of every day before dinner and clean the cauldrons was a blow to his plans to spend any free time with Hermione and Neville but he shrugged and thought he would just have to make the best of it.

That night in detention, while scrubbing the floor of the Entrance Hall, Harry hummed gently to himself. Despite his now aching knees and back and his sore hand and bottom from yesterday's punishment, he felt content in a way he had not done for a long time, even after Hermione's actions at Halloween.

Please review?

(Corporal Punishment wasn't made illegal in private schools in Scotland until 2000, so Snape's actions here are legal even under muggle law!)


	7. Quidditch

**I'm sorry it's taken so long to update. I did have this chapter written but it wasn't fitting in well to the plot at the time. I also started a new temp job and the inspiration dried up but now it is back. So hopefully I can update more regularly again. Thanks for sticking with me. The characters and settings are J.K Rowlings.**

Chapter Seven

The week of detentions passed swiftly as Harry spent his evenings cleaning various parts of the castle. His friendship with Neville and Hermione grew as Hermione began helping him out with his schoolwork pointing out errors in class so Harry began to get the hang of many of the charms and spells they were learning in class that before he hadn't managed to pick up before he had to give his wand back. He spent time with them doing homework but also just hanging out playing cards and talking, activities which he had never really had a chance to do before living as he had done with a guard and a tutor and no one else. Wizarding games were new to Hermione as well and Neville taught them several that they spent hours playing in spare classrooms. They chose a different classroom most times to prevent people from finding them easily although the laughter and bangs from exploding snap would probably have lead people to them easily enough.

Neville and Hermione had come in for some bullying on their decision to make friends with him and Neville wasn't saying how bad it was in his dormitory at night but they stuck by Harry as he ploughed his way through his build up of work and the demands that others put on him and their friendship grew.

Professor Begg had Harry preparing ingredients in the morning before breakfast, scrubbing cauldrons before dinner and then when Harry's detentions had finished, sometimes coming into prepare ingredients again in the evening. Despite never having actually made a potion, Harry found from preparing the ingredients and watching he was learning quite a lot about potions especially when Professor Begg made him help with Potions for the hospital wing and others probably for the Dark Lords use. Those he didn't enquire into too much as he had a feeling some especially those in which various vials of blood were used were probably considered quite dark but he avoided the topic around Hermione, who probably could have given him an answer on whether they were and their complete history up to that point. However despite the time he spent with Professor Begg, he did have more free time with this arrangement, which he spent with Hermione and Neville. He also tried to avoid Professor Begg as often as possible so he wasn't ordered to do extra work. This didn't always work but most of the time he managed to stay away from the Potions Master. He gained a better knowledge of the secret passageways in the castle from this and this also helped him to avoid the Slytherins and Gryffindors during the day preventing the bullying from escalating any further.

The next talk around the school was the upcoming Gryffindor- Slytherin Quidditch match. Whilst Slytherin were the current holders of the trophy, for the last three years they had been beaten by Gryffindor in the first match of the season. However, this year, Gryffindor had a new seeker and tensions were running high in the corridors. The seeker, a third year had come out of relative obscurity in the house to take the place and while he wasn't classed as good as Charlie Weasley, who people still talked about with baited breath and who was now playing professional quidditch, it was still thought they had a good chance against Slytherin.

Harry though was not going to the match. On the morning of the quidditch match as the discussion around him in the Great Hall consisted of quidditch talk and little else, Harry found himself accosted not by Professor Begg but by Professor Snape.

'Boy, I will be brewing today. You will accompany me to the dungeons now to assist me.'

'Yes sir' Harry replied looking at his friends sadly as he got to his feet, his half eaten breakfast lying discarded. He had been looking forward to the match as a chance to spend some time with his friends doing normal activities; Neville had even lent him a spare Gryffindor scarf for the occasion.

Down in the dungeons, the noise of the crowds was absent. Harry stood in the room for the moment unoccupied until Snape snapped at. Professor Begg tells me you are turning out to be a semi- competent helper. I will see whether this is true. Go and bring two jobberknoll feathers and prepare them and then start preparing the barrel of flobberworms on the counter.

'Yes sir.'

Harry had seen Professor Begg preparing potions before but Professor Snape was in another category. He moved around the cauldrons with precision occasionally snapping orders at Harry to fetch or prepare some ingredient. He flowed from potion to potion never looking up the recipes but following some innate sense of rhythm and timing. If Harry hadn't hated the man, he would have been quite impressed.

At lunch time Harry was left in the classroom with instructions to carry on preparing the ingredients and not touch anything else. A house elf did appear with a sandwich, which he wolfed down and he relaxed slightly away from the view of Snape, who had gone to check on the progress of the quidditch match.

The afternoon passed in the same manner when Snape had returned, until Snape had bottled his last potion, when Harry was released and he made his way back up to the Great Hall, where he saw the Slytherin table was celebrating a win. Settling down at his seat, he saw angry glances coming from several of the Gryffindors.

'You must have jinxed us.'

'Yeah, we never lost until you came, traitor.'

He looked back at them bewildered. How could they blame a quidditch loss on him? He wasn't even there. But the jeers grew and then the orders started.

He was surrounded by the students being slowly swept into the Entrance Hall, when Snape's voice cut through them.

'Why do we have a Gryffindor mob here if you please?'

Several explanations were launched but Snape ignored them and looked at Harry.

'Hmm, I see the problem. Maybe we should lend Harry's services to Slytherin tonight as you can't seem to decide what he is to do. It is about time the other houses had some help. Harry, follow me.'

The crowd of Gryffindors reluctantly parted and Harry staggered out of their midst. Snape was once again setting a rapid pace down to the dungeons. They stopped and then Harry heard a burst of noise as a door opened and he was pushed through. Harry blinked in the sudden rush of greenish light after the dimly lit dungeon corridors found himself in the Slytherin common room.

'Slytherins congratulations on your victory. I bring you help for your victory party this evening.' Snape announced. He turned on his heel and with his robes billowing behind him left Harry alone in the Slytherins common room.

Upstairs he smiled. He could feel Harry's slight fear and embarrassment coming from the connection. The boy was getting too comfortable and it was time he was thrown off balance again. He wondered what the boy would be made to do and then decided what he didn't know could not be used against him, which was a great theory until he opened his office door and found Voldemort sitting at the desk.

'My Lord, I was not expecting you.' he said bowing.

'Rise, Severus, and take a seat. I found myself with some free time this evening and thought I would find out how the school was behaving and congratulate you on a Slytherin win.'

'Thank you, My Lord, the team played well and the Gryffindor seeker showed his inexperience clearly with the dive that he made. I feel Slytherin should take the cup easily this year. Professor Begg tells me he does like to see it in his office and McGonagall is fuming with the desire to recapture the trophy.'

'Very well, so Slytherin remains the top house in the school?'

'Yes, My Lord, they currently lead in house points as well as in Quidditch. It is your most loyal house with most of the children of your inner circles in. A few children in the other houses are worth watching for their loyalty. In Gryffindor, Percy Weasley, a fifth year appears to have embraced authority and enforces the rules to the book.'

'Ahh, yes, Gryffindor, the most troublesome house. Tell me Severus, how are this year's first years doing?'

'Ronald Weasley is the acknowledged leader of the pureblood first years. He is loud, arrogant and brash but is followed by Geraldus Mallory and Simon Birch. Neville Longbottom, the other pureblood boy is quiet and only good at Herbology. He is also continuing his friendships with the muggleborn Granger and Harry. The pureblood girls are typical young girls. Parvati Patil is only interested in boys and fashion already, unlike her twin in Ravenclaw, whilst Chloe Fairley seems to be her shadow. Lavender Brown, the half blood seems to have been adopted into their group as well.

'A half blood?'

'Her father was a muggleborn wizard, so she has grown up as a first generation pureblood. The half blood boys have formed a group and have also included the muggleborn Dean Thomas and Deidre Baysfield. The other muggleborn, Hermione Granger, seems intent on continuing her friendship with Harry, despite the attempts of much of the school to break it up. I believe Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley have been the most persistent. She is a clever girl with an addiction to books but her teachers report that she is found of quoting large amounts of the books and refuses to give way to the purebloods in class.'

'Hmm, she will learn her place; see that she is given detentions if her interruptive activities carry on in class. Now, what of Harry?'

Snape frowned. This was the question he had been hoping to avoid. He had a strange feeling that although he had carte blanche over the boy's activities, leaving him alone with a houseful of celebrating Slytherins may annoy the Dark Lord.

'The boy has been improving in classes possibly due to the help of Miss Granger, who sits next to him for many of them. He has been aiding Professor Begg with his potions brewing and has moved to a room next to his. This has kept him in better physical order than before Halloween. I used the boy's assistance for brewing today during the quidditch match and he prepares the ingredients well.'

'Anything else?'

'The boy when he isn't needed by Professor Begg spends much of his time in unused classrooms and other out of the way spots with his friends.' Snape mused about how to say the next part 'He can't believe he has friends and worries that we will do something to take them away. He tried to protest about them befriending him, following our rules.' The boy's reaction to having friends was definitely different to his father's, it possibly resembled more, the reaction of the wolf. The friendship would need keeping an eye on though. He had a feeling that the Granger girl may prove to be a radical thinker.

'Hmm, that is an interesting hold over the boy. If he misbehaves again, you will forbid his friends from seeking him out.'

'Yes, My Lord.'

'And where is the boy now?'

Snape paused for a micro second before replying as there was no getting away with it 'He was set upon by the Gryffindors this evening, who blamed him for their loss. Therefore, I decided it was time that his services were of use to more houses than just Gryffindor and I escorted him to Slytherin blindfolded, so he doesn't know where the common room is, so he could assist in their celebrations.'

'You fool; you would leave the boy in a common room full of my most deadly supporters children?' Voldemort raged, getting to his feet.

Snape slipped from his seat and knelt with his head bowed. 'My Lord, I am sure they will not hurt him permanently.' It was as he had thought but he could not change his actions now. He just hoped the boy was alright.

'You had better be correct I this belief, Severus. I do not mind the boy being used for practising reversible curses on but I would hope my Slytherins and future supporters would know some better curses by now. I will hold you responsible if the boy is severely hurt as only I am allowed to do this. You knew the limits of the boy's assistance and even if you have not communicated this to the boy, you should have ensured he remains safe. I need him for publicity. Go and return the boy to his room and then return.'

Snape rose and hurried out of the room leaving Voldemort to return to his fire whiskey and contemplate the boy.

Shortly Snape returned looking relieved. He had rescued the boy as he knelt in the middle of the room holding a tray. The boy had been hexed slightly to be coloured green and silver but overall, was fine. He hadn't fancied getting punished over such a small mistake. Why was the Dark Lord so protective of the boy?

'The boy is fine, My Lord. The Slytherins were too busy celebrating their win to attack the boy.'

'Good. Now have you made any progress on tracking down who brought in the troll?'

Snape looked up from studying his brandy. 'It was most likely let in by a member of staff or a high level student. I would have suspected that oaf, Hagrid, if he had still been here.'

'Yes, Hagrid was the type to bring dangerous beasts into the school but sadly not on this occasion.'

'I think it unlikely that McGonagall, Flitwick or Sprout brought it in although they may seem the most likely suspects with their ties to the past Headmaster. If they haven't rebelled yet, they are unlikely to do so where it will put the students at risk. Begg is also unlikely seeing as he is a Death-Eater. The other specialised subject teachers I think are unlikely but could still be outside possibilities as most of them have stayed on. That leaves us, Thornefield and Thirkell. Thornefield has appeared loyal up till now, whilst Thirkell is outwardly loyal but keeps himself to himself, so his true beliefs are a bit more unknown. When he was employed two years ago his references were good. I believe he had been a tutor with the Malfoy family for a while.'

'And of the older students?'

'I would think it may well be an older student in Gryffindor as the most likely. I will try to establish if anyone other than the Granger girl was absent from the meal.'

'Has the Mudblood been checked?'

'Yes, she was innocent. She had run off earlier on when the pureblood boys in Gryffindor had been teasing her.'

'Very well. Keep looking. Now I must be off. I have a meeting in the morning about werewolf jobs. I will see you next week at the Hogwarts Governors meeting.'

'Goodnight, My Lord' said Snape bowing as Voldemort finished his brandy and stood up before apparating away.

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	8. Christmas amongst friends

Sorry about the wait for this. I was never very happy with this chapter although it takes the story forward. The conversation always felt too stilted but as it has been such a long time sice I last published a chapter on here I thought I would publish any way. I can always amend it in the future. Again HP does not belong to me.

Chapter eight

December came and the snow built up outside the castle. Harry found the dungeons became increasingly cold and he began to look forward to his time spent preparing ingredients in the warm potions classroom, heated by the daily fires that burnt under the cauldrons. He would have looked forward to it more had it not been for Professor Begg's presence but even his insults grew tired and Harry began to ignore his bite.

Harry carried on trying to find empty classrooms to meet his friends in as the Gryffindor common room had been declared unsafe by Hermione and Neville. Their favourite meeting place was a small classroom on the sixth floor, where they were able to talk and work in peace although Hermione apparently also spent large amounts of time in the Library dragging Neville along, when the snow became to deep for Neville to disappear to the Greenhouses.

One day, Harry was hurrying up the stairs to the sixth floor to meet up when whilst waiting for the stairs to arrive in the correct position, he heard voices. About to ignore them he suddenly heard one of the voices start talking about the troll just after Halloween. Intrigued, he crept closer hiding behind a statue to listen. The raised voices drifted from a nearby classroom.

'Well, when are you going to attempt to release more creatures? The troll almost worked if those brats hadn't found it, then it would have been fine.'

'Mmm, that and Snape directing us around. Who would have thought when he was first appointed that he would actually prove to do a good job'.

'Yes, next time the diversion actually needs to work. Seeing as trolls can now be defeated by sword wielding kids, we will need a different strategy of diversions.'

'Well, go out and find some then and don't delay too much.'

'How are you getting on finding the object?'

'Not well. Gryffindor hid the damned thing too well.'

Harry heard the door opening and ran. The staircases were luckily by that time in the correct place and he ran up them and burst in at the door of the abandoned classroom startling Hermione and Neville, who looked up from their essays.

'The troll..' Harry panted 'it wasn't an accident… it was released… heard them talking'

'Heard who talking?' asked Hermione.

Harry tried to get his breath back and once he had managed it stood up and looked at Hermione and Neville who were standing looking at him, shocked. 'I don't know. I heard them talking on the fourth floor. I think one of them may have been a professor. They said they were going to release more creatures to create a diversion.'

'What?' said Neville shocked 'but this is a school? Someone could get hurt.'

'I'll have a look in the books and see what creatures are likely to be released and how we will deal with them' said Hermione confidently. 'At least then we will be prepared to deal with anything we come across.'

'That's not all; they were talking about trying to find an object Gryffindor hid.'

'Strange, there aren't many known object from the founders. It's in Hogwarts: A History.' Hermione said. 'I wonder what they are trying to find.'

'Dunno,' said Harry, shrugging, 'They never mentioned the object; all they talked about was releasing the troll, creating a diversion for something and finding an object before I had to run.'

Several days later, Hermione came into the room they were working in that night, with several large books in her arms. 'Right', she said 'These are all the books with details of creatures that could possibly be released. I ignored the ones with dragons and other exotic creatures for the moment as I think it is likely to something more local that gets released.'

Neville and Harry looked at each other. Ever since they had started be friends with Hermione they had noticed her tendency to over research things and to drag them along with her. With a joint pair of sighs they each picked up a book and within minutes the room had descended into silence, broken only by the occasional muttering as they came across odd facts.

An hour or so later, Hermione was still buried nose deep in her book but the boys were growing restless.

'Come on, Hermione, let's play cards. We have done enough studying for one evening and with a bit of luck; we won't meet any more creatures. I don't want anymore detentions because of it. Not to mention most of these solutions we won't be able to perform yet and I won't be able to any way' said Harry closing his book with a snap.

'But Harry,' Hermione protested.

Neville pulled the book out of her hands. 'Harry is right. We probably won't come across any more of these creatures and any way if we do we should let the Professors deal with it. It is safer.'

'Yeah, I hate to think, how I would get punished this time if I grabbed another sword.' Harry said ruefully.

With a sigh, Hermione relented and within a few minutes they were busy playing exploding snap, which lasted until curfew.

Christmas drew nearer and the castle became a magical wonderland of charmed snow and decorations. The Great Hall sparkled under its decorations and most of the rooms were decked with greenery to celebrate the forthcoming holiday.

On the last day before term broke up, Harry met up with Hermione and Neville, in the greenhouses. A path had been cleared through the snow to them and the warmth charms on the glass made it a good meeting spot.

He sat glumly at the table watching as Neville competently potted up a shrinking violet. Hermione was sitting with a book in her hands but wasn't reading for once.

'One more day, and the worst of the students will be gone.' She said encouragingly.

'Thank Merlin, if Malfoy makes one more comment about my parents or if Weasley, either of them, makes more one crack about having no family to go home to at Christmas, I don't want to think what the consequences will be.'

'Oh Harry' Hermione said. She wasn't going home either for Christmas and was sad about not seeing her parents at Christmas for the first time ever. 'Just ignore them. They aren't worth worrying about.'

Harry snorted and turned his gaze to the window, where outside the snow was beginning to fall again. 'What about you, Neville. What are your plans for Christmas?'

The other boy sighed. 'Well I may be at home but I will get dragged to all the parties, everyone hosts. They are the worst things. Being polite to all the kids and grown ups. Not giving anything about your family life away. I think this year as well, we are off to a party at the Weasleys. Mrs Weasley always gives you more food than you can manage and the kids' lord over everyone. Not to mention, nothing is safe to touch thanks to Fred and George. Any way, I have finished here, lets go back in and play cards.'

The next day the pureblood and half blood students left. The castle felt empty as Harry wandered around. The dungeons especially felt empty as all the Slytherin students were gone. The muggleborn students although missing their parents were able to relax as the castle became a less hostile place.

Harry found himself with free time on his hands as Hermione insisted they got all their work out of the way in the first couple of days and he managed avoid the teachers giving him any work. This left him time to go to the library with Hermione and for a change curl up by the fire in Gryffindor laughing with the other students still here.

Harry at this point discovered what it was like to feel like one of a large group. The students that remained behind avoided any mention of class boundaries content to simply be and Harry found that the staff that had remained for the holidays allowed him freedom to join in with the games although several times he felt Snape's gaze on his back he ignored it.

It crossed his mind that this was the happiest he had been for years and for a change he looked forward to Christmas Day.

He and Hermione spent Christmas Eve exploring the castle further and discovered several new passages that would make getting to classes quicker. Just as they were about to give up, Harry discovered a small staircase leading upwards.

'I wonder where this leads.'

'Well, we must be nearly at the roof' Hermione mused. 'It doesn't look like anyone has been up there for a while.' Indeed, it didn't. A thick carpet of dust coated the stair treads and several large spiders webs hung down.

Harry started to pick his way up before Hermione looked at her watch and shrieked. 'Harry, we will be late for dinner if we don't go now.'

Harry reluctantly came down the stairs from what he could see they lead up into an enclosed space that was most probably the attics. 'Let's come back here again, it looks like the attics.'

'Ok,' Hermione agreed, 'there are probably all sorts of exciting things up there' she carried on excitedly. 'There could be old abandoned books…'

'Hermione' Harry said but she paid him no attention continuing to babble on about what could be upstairs. 'Hermione' Harry bellowed.

When she stopped talking and looked at him, he merely said 'dinner?'

She flushed and the pair of them then raced down the stairs ending up panting outside the Great Hall. 'Right lets go back on Boxing Day.' She said and Harry agreed as they went in to dinner there colour heightened from the unaccustomed exercise.

Harry woke on Christmas morning, putting his glasses on his blurry eyes made the objects at the foot of his bed come into sharp focus. There were several packages neatly wrapped. He scrambled out of bed wincing as his foot hit the cold stone floor and wrapping himself in his blanket; he tore excitedly into the parcels.

He unwrapped a package from Neville which contained chocolate frogs and munching one, he carried on unwrapping the other parcels. Each year he received a standard set of presents; a book, a piece of clothing and some sweets. This year was no exception, however despite the knowledge of what his parcels were likely to be, he still enjoyed the magic of Christmas and the excitement of opening the parcels. The book varied from year to year and this year it was Hogwarts: A History.

He met up with Hermione who had several new books and was reading one curled up by the fire in the Gryffindor common room whilst around her the other students played with their new games.

After Christmas lunch, which left him full and feeling lethargic, he got dragged off by Hermione to join the other students in a massive snow fight. It was the first snow fight, he had ever been in and he enjoyed himself immensely hurling snowballs at the opposing team and laughing when he got a faceful of snow from a snowball thrown by Hermione, which had gone off course. Eventually they succeeded in storming the opposing teams snow castle and after the rousing victory were trooping back in ready for the tea, appetites back, when he heard his name called.

Looking around the entrance hall, he saw Snape standing there. He crossed over to him, his heart sinking slightly and followed him to his office slowly, wondering what he had done wrong.

He was therefore thrown off balance when once inside the office; Snape picked something off the desk and gave it to him. He looked at the wrapping suspiciously. Snape had never before given him a gift and he wondered what was happening.

'It is not from me.' Snape said over his head as he examined the parcel. 'It is from the Dark Lord.'

Harry looked up sharply, Snape giving him a present was one thing but the Dark Lord giving him a present was definitely unheard of.

'You may open it.'

Harry opened it cautiously. Inside he found a book, 'The Life of Salazar Slytherin'. He looked up bemused.

'Sir, why has the Dark Lord given me this?'

'I believe he wanted you to know the history of your house further and also it complemented the official gift of 'Hogwarts: A History'. Any way, it is tea time, so I suggest you go and join your fellow students in the Great Hall.' Snape replied.

He and Hermione continued to puzzle over the book until bedtime wondering where the trap would be but known of the spells Hermione had learnt were good enough to detect anything wrong with the book.

Harry went to bed having had the best Christmas since his parents had died. He fell asleep dreaming of chasing Hermione with snow balls.

As the pupils went to sleep, Snape flooed from his office to the headquarters of the Dark Lord, where the annual Christmas party was in full flow. He made his way through the revellers, nodding at those he knew. No one tried to stop him as they all knew you greeted the Dark Lord first on these occasions no matter who the host was and if he was the host then it was all the more important.

'My Lord, Happy Christmas, I am sorry for arriving late, I had to await curfew for the students until I could attend. Snape said as he bent low and made his obeisance, waiting in this position for the Dark Lord to respond.

'My dear Severus, you may rise. And did those we have entrusted to your care enjoy the day?' The Dark Lord replied.

Snape straightened. 'I believe they did although there was the usual amount of tears for Mudblood parents.'

'And Harry? Did he enjoy the present I sent for him?'

'He was somewhat worried by it, My Lord but I believe he will read it or at least his Mudblood will.'

'Excellent. Now Severus there is one last Christmas present for Harry but he will not find out what it is. I believe with the bracelet on his wrist, the need for Legilimency except in exceptional cases is over. If there is such a case you will apply to me for permission.'

'My Lord,' Snape gasped. 'You believe he is not a threat any more?'

'No, Severus, stop jumping to conclusions. He is merely under so much supervision these days, as opposed to before school, that any activities will not long go undetected. Now we will return to the party where I will reward my loyal death eaters for their service.'

Snape understood the conversation was over and hurried to follow the Dark Lord back to the festivities.

When Harry and Hermione met up in the Great Hall the next morning their first thought was that unexplored section of the attics. After breakfast, they retraced their footsteps to the attic room and climbing the stairs ventured into the dimly lit space.

The space stretched on into the darkness, joists and struts looming out of the dark at them like ghostly sentinels. Directly by the entrance was a pile of a few boxes but when they looked in them, they were disappointingly empty except for a few spiders, that scuttled away as the light from Hermione's wand lit the spaces up.

'Shame Ron isn't here' Harry whispered, the dark space and the silence feeling oppressive causing him to whisper. 'He would have run a mile at these. Shame we can't give him a few.' Every potions lesson they had had that had involved spider parts in a potion, Ron had made Harry do all the work with them.

'Harry' Hermione said sternly but with a hint of suppressed laughter. 'Don't be as bad as they are.'

'Fine' Harry grumbled as they moved deeper into the attic space, the dim light from the stairwell receding. 'I can but wish.'

They found another stack of boxes, these bore the appearance of rapid packing and several were bulging open, showing insides packed with bright robes in any number of eye watering shades.

Laughing they tried them on peacocking around in the dark. Harry thought he looked particularly splendid in a teal coloured velvet robe with scarlet stars embroidered onto it, whilst Hermione favoured a lime green and orange robe with magically animated purple parakeets flying on the hems.

'Look at me, I'm the Grand Wizard Harry' Harry said strutting around in his finery. Hermione laughed and followed his example declaring herself the 'Supreme Witch of Witchety Wood'

Just as they grew bored of that game and started to pack the robes back up, Harry noticed the one cloak in the box in a boring colour, a dull mottled grey, purple and green. He moved but stopped as he uncovered a name tag woven into the fabric.

He stopped and sat down suddenly, the cloak clutched in his suddenly dry hands.

Hermione noticed his sudden action and stopped mid laugh. 'Harry, what's wrong?' she said worriedly, coming over to him.

Harry couldn't answer, his throat was chocked with suppressed tears but he slowly turned the cloak round and showed her the label. She read in amazement the words 'Property of James Potter'.

'Oh Harry' Hermione said and she sat down next to him and hugged him as silent tears streamed down his face. He had never had anything from his parents ever since their murder and to find this suddenly out of the blue was just too much.

He didn't know how long they sat there together but eventually he got his composure back and moved in Hermione's arms. She sat up and looked at him.

'Are you ok?'

'Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't have anything of theirs though to remember them by, I'll smuggle this down to my room. Lucky it is fairly innocuous; it will hide in my possessions.'

'Are you going to try it on?' asked Hermione.

Harry shrugged worn out from his earlier emotions. 'Yeah, why not.'

He swung it over his shoulders and looked at Hermione, who had gasped.

'Harry look at yourself.'

Startled, Harry looked down but his body had vanished. 'What the…?'

Hermione burst in excitedly. 'Harry that's an invisibility cloak I've read about them, they're really rare. They're made from demiguise hair and …'

'A what?'

'An invisibility cloak.'

'I'm going to be able to sneak round the school now and avoid everyone.'

'But Harry, we will have to keep it secret.'

'Yeah, but I will still be able to avoid Weasley and Malfoy, some of the time.'

'Oh Harry, do you think this is your parents stuff?' Hermione asked.

Harry glanced up excited from examining the cloak but then looked down sadly. 'No, it can't be, they burnt it.'

'Then what is the cloak doing here?' Hermione demanded. 'Perhaps some of the other clothes will have a name tag on them.'

They searched through the opened boxes but none of the clothes had a name tag or any other identifying feature. Moving onto the boxes they had yet to open, Hermione shrieked suddenly as she opened one.

'Books, loads of them. Look, Harry. There are loads in here.' She sat down and pulled several out glancing at the titles.

Harry looked at a few pulling the out and blowing the dust away in clouds. Some of them weren't very interesting such as 'Ten pin bowling for the over eighties' and 'The British Legislature 1253 to 1397' although Hermione seemed to deeply involved in a tome called 'The Life Cycle of the Gurdy Root Flies'.

He opened them anyway to see if they had a name in the front but they were empty. However he looked at the next one and the title caught his eye. 'A Beginners Guide to Occlumency.'

He thumbed the book and laid it aside with the cloak to take back downstairs. The next book was what he had been looking for and his exclamation roused Hermione from her book. 'I've got it'

'Yes', she scrambled over keeping her finger in her page. 'Whose stuff is it?'

Harry showed her the page and she gasped. Harry quickly put his hand over her mouth though as she started to exclaim.

'We can't say the name, remember?'

The inscription in the book read 'To Albus Dumbledore with thanks from Martha Prewett.'

Hermione nodded and Harry removed his hand. Just then his stomach rumbled and Hermione looked at her watch.

'Come on, it is almost lunch, lets come back after lunch to pick these things up. We don't want to be late and have people asking us where we were.'

They left the tantalising heap of boxes and the few items they had fished out so far and went down to lunch both even more excited about coming back than they were before.


	9. Broomsticks and Boggarts

Sorry about the delay, folks, but I lost momentum with this story. Hopefully, this shifts the plot along a bit.

J.K Rowling owns everything.

Chapter 9

Random creatures appeared around the castle frequently in the next few weeks but as far as Harry, Hermione and Neville knew nothing had happened apart from this, and although they kept an eye on all the staff as well as they could, whenever an incident happened, they were no nearer finding out what was happening or who was plotting and bringing the creatures into the castle. Lunch was interrupted several times by groups of creatures appearing suddenly in the Great Hall, including at one point a large group of Hummerhorns, giant wasp creatures that while they looked menacing with foot long horns were in fact harmless, although the majority of the school didn't think so as they fled in panic away from them. Harry, Neville and Hermione ducked under the table while they watched the teachers banish them before lunch could continue. That evening Professor Snape made a speech to the school.

'If I ever find out who is responsible for releasing these creatures into the school then they will be expelled.' A murmur swept around the students. 'I suggest that instead of panicking at the sight of these creatures, you read up on methods of stopping this annoyance.'

However, the random appearances did not stop and much of the school continued fleeing in panic causing disruptions to class and meals. The teachers could be seen going around with ever increasing frowns and the school was cleaned even more thoroughly before until it became dangerous to walk on the wooden surfaces for fear of slipping on the over polished floors.

Harry had now read the occulumency book and had started practicing the exercises having been reassured from the book to find out that it would not suppress his emotions from appearing through the bracelet and therefore would not bring Snape down on him.

He was sitting in the attic one day having snuck up there under the invisibility cloak to avoid Professor Begg after dinner, practicing his exercises by concentrating on the idea of walls around his mind when Neville suddenly appeared holding his broomstick.

'Harry, do you want to learn to fly?' He burbled excitedly. 'This space is probably large enough.'

Harry looked up, eyes shining, ' Do you really mean that?'

'Of course' Neville replied. 'Here, have the broomstick.'

Harry received it, holding it carefully, aware that the broom was quite expensive.

'Right, so put it on the floor and shout 'up'' Neville instructed.

Harry did as he was told and the broom shot up to him.

'Wow, that didn't happen on my first time.' Neville exclaimed 'So carefully put your leg over and push off gently.'

Harry did so and felt himself hovering in the air, he leant forwards slightly to get his balance and the broom moved forward. With Neville following on the floor, he carefully flew around the attic gaining more confidence. When Hermione came up to the attic, he was swooping down in the tallest part of the roof dodging between trusses chasing Neville, who was running trying to avoid being tagged.

Hermione huffed and sighed. Pulling out a book she tried to read but was distracted by the boys laughter. Within a few minutes she was involved in the game and was darting away from Harry, giggling wildly, her bushy hair flying in all directions as she ducked and dodged.

When they were all exhausted at last, they subsided on to seats and sat in comfortable silence getting their breath back. Harry brought up the subject of Occlumency to the others.

'Do you know about legilimency and occlumency.' Hermione frowned, thinking through what she had read and shook her head looking puzzled but Neville was nodding.

'Yeah, my parents mentioned it. I think the Dark Lord uses it.'

'Probably, Snape does.'

'What does it do?' Hermione asked.

'Legilimency looks into your mind and occlumency protects your mind' Harry replied.

Hermione sat up indignantly, 'You mean, Snape can read my mind?' she asked.

'Yeah, he has done it to me before.' Harry replied 'but I found this book here about occlumency and I wondered if you wanted to learn it as well.'

Neville looked worried. 'Harry, it isn't legal.'

'I know but I want some privacy. Snape already can feel my emotions when he wants to. Besides if it is done well, then it is undetectable.'

'But Harry,what if he does find out?' Hermione protested.

'Then I will just put up with the consequences. They can't be much worse to me after all. And anyway, you were the one wanting me stand up for myself a bit more.'

'Oh Harry, I just worry for you.' said Hermione. 'But give me the book and let me look. If we all work together we might find it easier. I will read this tonight and then give it to Neville.'

'Thanks'

Hermione gave him a shy smile and picked the book up burying her nose in it. Harry and Neville exchanged glances before Neville pulled a pack of cards out of his bag and the boys settled down to play.

The animal attacks around the castle continued with boggarts appearing in many cupboards to the horror of staff and pupils alike. Harry managed to avoid them although he did have a close encounter with a crowd of doxies that came swooping out a suite of armour as he walked past attacking him and then as he ran trying to get away, attacking other students as he went past. He eventually managed to loose them but for several days afterwards he heard of other attacks by them. Professor Begg made him help with the ingredients of the antidote to keep up with the demands of the infirmary.

A group of gnomes took up occupancy in the basement and several people were found sporting bites as the gnomes started a habit of jumping out onto people's ankles. Several times Harry only just avoided the creatures. Finally Professor Snape sent a group of teachers and prefects in to remove the creatures. Harry spent the next evening in the Potions classroom listening to Professor Begg complain about the incompetence of Professor Thirkell and the interruption of his time. Apparently he had arranged for a trip to Hogsmeade to meet someone at the time that had had to be cancelled.

Then one day as Harry was wandering up to the attic he heard voices again. Wondering if he would hear the mysterious couple again, he opened a broom cupboard door only to recoil in fear.

Why Voldemort had suddenly appeared after he had opened a cupboard he didn't know but the menacing apparition bearing down on him had triggered an impulse to run. He wasn't going to hang around to find out.

He ran blindly not knowing where he was going and not paying any attention to his surroundings until he hit something soft.

He heard an exclamation and as he tried to regain his balance, he grabbed hold of who ever he had run into. He let go rapidly after a shock went through his body. Staggering backwards he looked up to see who he had run into and blanched.

There standing in front of him, looking angry were the two worst people he could have met, Professor Snape and Lord Voldemort. He had run into Lord Voldemort.

Too shocked to run again, he dropped to his knees, his head bowed waiting for the worst to happen but nothing happened quickly. Instead he heard a low murmur of conversation. Glancing up from under his fringe, he saw the two wizards engaged in a conversation although still looking angry.

'So this is the boy, is it?'

'Yes, My Lord. I don't know what he is doing. I will find out. He should not be running around the corridors like this.'

'Well, this wasn't quite the location I would have chosen for our first meeting but it has happened now. Bring the boy back to your office. I wish to speak with him'

'Yes My Lord.'

Harry still peering from under his fringe, watched as the Dark Lord swept away his robes billowing around him much as Professor Snape's did. He brought his mind back to the present from that random thought, when he heard Professor Snape's angry voice snap at him. 'Come, now'.

Getting up he followed the two men back to Snape's office worrying what was about to happen but amazed he hadn't been killed on the spot. What had that shock been when he grabbed hold of the Dark Lord. Had it just been his magic reacting to being grabbed? Or was it as it had felt, something deeper that had recognised something in the other person and had responded. Puzzling on what he could share with the Dark Lord and then worrying what it might mean, Harry found himself in Snape's office facing the man who had ruined his life and then controlled his existence since.

Harry stood awkwardly in front of the desk as the Dark Lord studied him. Snape had been sent away meaning the meeting was just between the two of them. Harry didn't know what to do so settled for standing silently wishing the Dark Lord would speak.

'What were you running from?' the Dark Lord asked finally.

'I don't know, My Lord but you appeared out of a cupboard.'

'Ahh, a boggart then. Yes you won't learn how to deal with them until third year unlike trolls.' Harry squirmed at the mention of the troll but at a sharp look from Voldemort, he stood still again. 'So I am your greatest fear, am I?'

'Yes, My Lord.' Harry stuttered, the overwhelming power of Voldemort getting to him.

'Well, as you are my ward officially, we will just have to change that.'

'My Lord?' Harry asked, wondering what Voldemort meant. He hadn't had anything to do with the man, until now, since that Night.

'Oh yes, you are officially my responsibility. I have been busy these last few years creating a right and fitting Government, so unfortunately I have not had time to meet with you but after this opportune meeting, I feel this will change. We will get to know each other.'

Harry didn't know what to think. Get to know the Dark Lord? The man who had killed his parents? The one who was responsible for the way he was treated? Well may be if he did he could get better treatment and it was generally considered a good idea to go along with the Dark Lord's whims, so he settled for a generic 'Yes, my Lord.'

'Good, tell me, what is your favourite subject?' asked Voldemort.

'Charms, My Lord' said Harry.

'Why is this?'

'It comes fairly easily and I can use my wand.'

'Ahh, yes, your wand. Tell me what your least favourite subject is?'

'Defence and the Dark Arts, and Potions, My Lord.' Harry replied. 'I don't really learn anything in either subject and in potions; I'm not allowed to make the potions.'

'So you like learning, do you?'

'Yes,' here Harry hesitated but carried on with what he was going to say anyway, 'but not like a Ravenclaw.'

Voldemort threw his head back and laughed. 'Oh, Harry, I don't think anyone would accuse you of being a Ravenclaw. Would you like to participate in Potions?'

'Yes, My Lord' Harry answered eagerly.

'I will see what I can arrange then. What do you do in your free time?'

'I don't really have much, but I do my homework with Hermione and Neville and play games with them sometimes.' Harry said.

'Oh yes, Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom. They are good friends?'

'Yes, I tried to tell them not to be friends with me but they would anyway.' Harry answered worried that what ever he said he would get the other two into trouble.

'Well, Harry, I need to go and get on with some work now but next time I am here, we will have another chat.'

'Very well, My Lord.' Harry bowed and turned to exit, avoiding Snape who was coming in to the office at the same time.

'So that is the boy. A peculiar mixture of innocence and world weariness I think. He seems loyal enough at the moment, so I think releasing another privilege would be allowable. Tell Garulf Begg that the boy is to be allowed to participate in potions classes and get the necessary ingredients and items for him.'

'Yes, My Lord.'

'Now what was a boggart doing on the fourth floor?'

'I don't know, My Lord. Recently, there have been a few outbreaks of pests around the castle. Nothing as large as the troll, but still enough to cause havoc to lessons and meals. Cornish Pixies appeared in the DADA room and Doxies have appeared in several classrooms. Jarvey's appeared in the Great Hall the other night and Hummerhorns have appeared at meal times as well. I thought they were just innocent infestations at first but they keep happening. Either someone is pulling practical jokes on us, possibly the Weasley Twins or this is somehow linked to the troll and someone is trying to purposefully disrupt Hogwarts.'

'Hmm, how are you getting on with the troll investigation?'

'I discovered it was somehow portkeyed in to the dungeons but as yet I have not found the culprit. It is unlikely to be one of the students if it was a portkey unless they were the focus and they have outside accomplices. Many of the staff have rudimentary occulumency shields and I cannot pry without them finding out.'

'Keep an eye on the situation and let me know if the incidents escalate or something else happens.'

Harry found Hermione and Neville coming to look for him. He pulled them into a nearby classroom and spilled the story out quickly. Neville looked grave. Harry knew what he was feeling and did agree, to have the Dark Lord interested in you was never a good idea and especially having the Dark Lord know what your greatest fear was.

Hermione though looked excited and interested. 'Harry,' she stuttered 'Do you think that was why he kept you alive? That connection?'

Harry's thoughts flashed back to that evening, eight years ago when his world had collapsed. He didn't remember any of the battle having been hidden by his mother, the only thing he remembered was the Dark Lord pointing his wand at him, his face grinning in triumph and then only blackness until he woke up to the new order of things in the magical world and his place in it. Since then having not seen the Dark Lord he didn't know what had happened.

He answered Hermione slowly, 'I don't know. It could be but I don't know what could have caused it.'

'Well, lets go to the library then and see if we can find anything.' She said getting up from the desk she was sitting on.

Harry grabbed her sleeve. 'No, don't. I don't want the Dark Lord finding out anything about this. I don't know if he felt it or not and if he didn't, I may have an advantage at some point in the future if he continues this interest. But he will monitor the library. Plus anything that may be relevant will probably be in the restricted section.'

Suddenly they heard a rustling noise and a few footsteps outside the door. They looked up and dashed for the door but after wrenching it open they found no one in the corridor outside. They looked at each other, suddenly worried that someone had heard their conversation.


End file.
